Iran Focus

London, 19 Oct – Iran has tried to follow suit with Russia’s social media campaign to provide false information over social media, albeit in a more clumsy manner.

Social media giant Twitter released data showing the activity of the two nations on its platform earlier this week. There were over two million images and 10 million tweets. Iran was responsible for more than one million tweets and hundreds of profiles.

Twitter called on experts and analysts to look into the data it had released in its efforts to understand just how the two countries were able to misuse the platform on such a large scale.

Iran Focus

London, 19 Oct – Tensions are rising between the US and the EU over the issue of Iran sanctions – Europe has announced a “special purpose vehicle” to evade US sanctions and the US has threatened to blacklist any company that uses it – but they need to come back together to fight the real and present danger of the Iranian Regime.

Europe’s special purpose vehicle to handle transactions between Iranian and European companies will not help evade sanctions on the Iranian Regime. First, no company wants to be blacklisted by the US and face all of the problems that brings.

Iran Focus

London, 18 Oct – Earlier this year, Twitter had to suspend 770 accounts for engaging in “coordinated manipulation” that appeared to originate in Iran. According to research published on Wednesday, the accounts were made to appear as those of foreign journalists and concerned U.S. citizens, and were being used to spread political propaganda.

YouTube, which is co-owned by Facebook and Google similarly spotted and took down Iranian content, some of which had been linked to state-owned media, according to an analysis by FireEye, a security firm that first uncovered the activity.

Iran Focus

London, 17 Oct – In a document published on his official website, his vision for the Islamic Republic in the year 2065 was outlined by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The document is officially called the “Islamic-Iranian Blueprint for Progress” (IIBP), and according to Khamenei, “has laid the main foundations and ideals of progress and has drafted the ideal horizon of the country for the five decades to come.”

Iran Focus

London, 17 Oct – Teachers across Iran went on strike on October 14 and 15, holding sit-ins at their schools to demand better pay and conditions and an end to the detention of education activists. They are also demanding equal access to education for all Iranian children.

Social media has been flooded with pictures of striking teachers from all over Iran, including Amol, Eslam Abad, Garmeh, Gonabad, Hamadan, Ilam, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Marivan, Mashhad, Sanandaj, Sarvabad, Semirom, Tabriz, Torbat Heidarieh, Yasouj, Zarin Shahr, and Tehran, all using the hashtags #nationwide teachers’ sit-in, #teachers_sitin and #nationwide_strike.. The videos and photos being shared show teachers holding up placards and banners with their demands on them.

Iran Focus

London, 16 Oct – The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali Larijani, has said that the United States is a “threat to the entire world”, so it is a strange thing indeed that he allows his daughter, Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, to live and study in Cleveland, Ohio.