Hardline media outlets in Iran claim the country’s security forces hacked the Telegram channel of Iran International, a Persian-language broadcaster that has extensively covered the year-old “Woman Life Freedom” protests. The outlets claim the regime intercepted messages in which Iranian citizens sent amateur images related to the protests to the UK-based broadcaster for publication. The channel denies it was hacked, and a FRANCE 24 review of the supposedly intercepted messages found no evidence that any of the amateur content was ever broadcast by Iran International.
With a news blackout in place in Iran on the protests that followed the death of Mahsa Amini last September, many Iranians have turned to Persian-language media broadcasting from overseas. With independent media barred from working in Iran, such channels rely heavily on amateur images published on social media or sent in by Iranian citizens. Videos filmed by citizens and sent to these media outlets outside Iran have become the main source for many Iranians of independent information about what is happening inside their country.
