Hackers have targeted the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) app Telewebion, streaming anti-regime images and slogans on the platform.
The group Edalat-e Ali [Ali's Justice] was behind the disruption on Tuesday, February 1, the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's return to Iran in 1979 ahead of the Islamic Revolution.
During the period the hacktivists had control, audiences could hear a voice saying "Khamenei is afraid, the system is unstable at its core” and saw anti-regime slogans including "Death to the dictator” flash across their screens. A video showed a masked man, who read out a message to what he described as the "Iranian nation”:
"We are ready to shake the foundations of the corrupt regime ruling our country. They will not silence us anymore. We will turn our period of suffering [“Fajr”] into their time of mourning. No hijab. We will burn the hijab. We break their idols. We expose the palaces of the oppressors and hold them accountable to the nation. The regime has tasted our power — and will now see more of it."
Soon after, a clip of journalist Masih Alinejad, who has led a campaign against the Islamic Republic’s policy of compulsory hijab, removing her headscarf appeared, accompanied by more pronouncements from the narrator: "We raised our voices in protest and called on the Iranian people to turn the period of Fajr into a time to resume nationwide protests."
"Telewebion's infrastructure was disrupted on February 1, from 2:00 am to 11:00 pm, and the programs of several channels on the network have been incompletely archived during this period,” the IRIB outlet admitted publicly.
It was the second time Iran’s state media has been hacked in five days.
Several domestic radio and television channels were hacked on January 27. For several seconds, Channel One, the Quran channel, Radio Payam, and Radio Javan broadcast "Death to Khamenei" messages and photographs of Maryam Rajavi, the leader of opposition group the People’s Mojahedin Organization [MEK], and Massoud Rajavi, the co-leader of the MEK who disappeared in the late 1980s and who has not been seen since.
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