As a show of solidarity, the notorious Internet hacker group “Anonymous” has hijacked several media websites related to the Iranian government. Following the death of Mahsa Amini, Iran had gone up in flames as protestors flooded the streets asking for justice. The hackers’ activities had been announced by a Twitter account that is suspected to be linked with the group.
On Friday, a 22-year-old woman hailing from Kurdistan’s northwestern province, died in Tehran while being in the custody of the country’s so-called “morality” police. She was detained for wearing the hijab in an improper way. The cause of her death was a stroke followed by several heart attacks. This was reported by the state media and authorities in charge of handling the case.
The police authorities had outright denied any involvement in the death and had reportedly said that Amini had a pre-existing condition and all allegations of mistreatment or beatings are false. The claims by the police were rejected by Amini’s family.
Anonymous Hacks
Amini’s death had led to an eruption of a series of violent protests across several Iranian cities. On Wednesday, a short video containing the footage of the street protests was released by anonymous.
In the video, an altered voice is heard saying that Iranian people are not alone and that this was the last straw.
The main targets of the cyber-attack from Anonymous had been the two official Iranian government websites.
One of the websites hosting a series of online services is offered, generally called a “smart services” website. The other website is a journalistic lieu of web pages containing interviews of high-ranking officials, and notices or any kind of news from the government.
According to the Anonymous Twitter account, all the data on the websites have been destroyed. But no such confirmation had been given by the Iranian government, they have yet to comment on the cyber-attacks.
Along with Iranian state television’s website, many other important websites were also down for a short while. The struggle between the hackers and the Iranian IT support services was apparent, as the websites constantly went down and got recovered and vice versa.
The governor of Kurdistan stated that at least three individuals had been killed in the protests. However, the governor is also saying the deaths seem to be framed by the anti-revolutionary groups to evoke unrest in the country.
According to the state media, Amini’s death had kindled swathes of people to get on the roads to protest, and that the protests have spread over in at least 15 Iranian cities.
The solidarity and support being shown to get justice for Amini from international groups is not going to impact the Ismalic Republic’s indifference, but it is bound to make the common Iranian’s fight against injustice stronger with support and even boost their morale while fighting against the Iranian government force.
The power of Social Media
Social Media is definitely playing an important role in spreading the news of Amini’s death and making them aware about the brutal beatings she had to endure for hours by the “morality police.” The people are livid and Iran is going through a revolution for a girl who died at the hands of cruelty. The demand to change rigid laws and the spark to improve upon the conditions that women face in Iran is being supported by thousands of people. And this news is also heavily discussed and supported internationally through social media apps like Twitter. There would be Twitter threads with information, links to charities and petitions.
Secret Organizations like Anonymous contributing to this cause and stating their motive to their thousands of followers on Twitter is also going to pressurize the government some more.
Amini’s death is an unfortunate occurrence which has given rise to the biggest public defiance towards the Iranian government. This is bringing together the people who were turned away from their rights decades ago and seems like their demand for justice is going to continue for a long time.
Since the beginning of this decade, all around the world protests calling for justice are becoming increasingly common, some of them becoming huge and internationally recognized after getting traction on social media.
