Letter from Iranian Feminist to Meta

We, a group of Iranian civil society activists and the authors of this letter, have been exposed to an unprecedented attacks on the social networks, Instagram and Facebook in the last two weeks.

At least 20 of our individual and group accounts, with hundreds of thousands of followers, often focusing on the feminist discourse, saw thousands of bot followers added in a short period of time.

These attacks, which began in the last hours of Thursday, May 11, 2022, reminded us of the attacks on the websites of civil society activists in recent years. Attacks that are not specific to Iranian civil society and similar attacks have been witnessed by other civil society activists and groups in other parts of the world by authoritarian powers.

In these cyberattacks, which are often managed and sponsored by companies affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC), the bots swarmed our social media pages in order to temporarily disable them.

The current cyberattack began with Instagram pages such as “Me-Too-Movement-In-Iran” and civil society activists such as Katayoun Keshavarzi and Mina Khani, and continued to other pages such as “Awakening”, “Eight Hundred Women”, “Everyday Feminism,” “Cheragh Academy” and “Harassment watch”.

Similar to previous attacks on our websites, we (some of us ) see thousands of bots with accounts that are not stablished and often with pseudonyms and photos of Qassem Soleimani, a former Quds Force commander killed by the US military in Iraq, on their profile.

We also see thousands of private messages from these bots systematically exposing us to verbal harassment in the wake of these attacks.

Shortly afterward, the BBC Persian issued a report implying that some Meta-affiliated companies may have Persian-speaking employees affiliated with organizations inside Iran. In the last few days, we have directly contacted Meta on our pages through reports and also with the help of human rights organizations; however, we have not seen any response.

In addition to sending you this letter, we will publish the text in Persian and English in cyberspace to ensure that you will response to these attacks.

We specifically ask you to:

1. Implement more serious measures to protect the security of civil society activists, whether from Iran or other countries. Obviously, we ask you to block the possibility of making bots by forces affiliated with governments such as the Islamic Republic of Iran and to limit Meta’s social media presence to real people.[1]
2. We urge you to provide a gateway for civil society activists, both from Iran and other countries, to report directly and as quickly as possible to new attacks on their pages by governments such as the IRI
3. We ask you to simplify the process of verifying the accounts of civil society activists in Iran and countries with similar political athmosphere.
4. We also ask you to answer the international community about how the Islamic Republic of Iran is able to send fake followers to our pages in an organized way? Why do you give them such permission, and what is your solution to end these attacks permanently?

We believe that these attacks were carried out in order to harrass and bully the activists and admins of mentioned pages, forcing them to privatize their pages and interrupt their activities.

We believe that this cyber attack was carried out for the purpose of:

1. It forces us to spend many hours clearing these bots from our pages instead of working for Iranian civil society.
2. With thousands of bots entering our pages, they are trying to weaken us against the meta algorithms and allowing the removal of our pages by companies affiliated with you.
3. With thousands of bots infiltrating our pages, they airm to lower the engagement of our pages to such an extent that our new posts would not reach our intended audience.

We need to emphasize that the social media pages of Iranian feminists play an important role in raising awareness and leading the movement at the height of the protests inside Iran and the arrest of women civil activists and feminists inside the country.

At the same time as these cyber-attacks, Iran is once again witnessing nationwide protests, and several women, including theater and film artists, and women rights activists have been detained by the IRGC affiliated intelligence agencies.

The coincidence of these arrests in Iran, at the height of the nationwide protests, and the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran in cyber sabotage has created a terrifying atmosphere for us, Iranian feminists.

These Instagram pages are our only tool to speak to iranian people and organize against severe sexual and gender-based violence in Iran. It worth mentioning that Iran’s gender gap index ranks 150 among 156 countries in the world.

Consider that this hateful, misogynistic, homophobic, and transphobic atmosphere in Iran is only not conspired the government apparatus, it is deep rooted in our social structures and we are fighting against it. Instagram is one our most effective tools that has made it possible for us to connect directly to the public and it certainly means more to us than a series of accounts to to share lifestyle.

1. Bidarzani (ID: bidarzani)

2. Me Too Movement Iran (ID: me_too_movement_iran)

3. Harasswatch (ID: harasswatch)

4. Cheragh Academy (ID: cheraghacademy)

5. No To Honor (ID: no_to_honor)

6. Nozhat Badi (ID: nozhatbadi)

7. Shaghyegh Norouzi ( ID: shaghayeghnoroozi)

8. Saba Abdollahi (ID: saba.abdollahiii)

9. Samaneh Savadi (ID: samaneh_savadi)

10. Mina Khani (ID: minakhani1)

11. Faranak Amidi (ID: faranak_amidi)

12. Maang Mirzaei (ID: maangmirzaei)

13. Zeinab Zaman (ID: zeinab_zaman)

14. Sara Damavandian (ID: saradamavandian)

15. Feminism Everyday (ID: feminism.everyday)

16. Mahdieh Golroo, (ID: mahdieh_golroo)

17. Maryam Moghadam ( ID:maryam.moqaddam82)

18. 800 Women (ID:800.women)

19. Safe Home For All (ID: safe.home.forall)

20. Marzieh Ziari ( marzieh.ziary)

21. Macholand (ID: macholand_fa)

22. Katayoon Keshavarzi (ID: katooli)

23. Payam Khodabandehlou (ID: payam_khodaba)

24. Athena Abbasi (ID: athena_abbasi)

25. Women memes (ID: women.memes1)

26. feninism_for_every_oneee (ID: feminism_for_every_oneee)

27. elham naeej (ID: elham_naeej)