Iranian Activists Want Tech Companies to Ban the Ayatollah

Maryam Shafipour spent two years in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, more than three months of it in solitary confinement, as the Iranian regime tried to break her. Years later, she’s in exile in Canada, and the regime, or its supporter base, appears to be trying a different tack: a steady barrage of online abuse and innuendo. On Instagram, Telegram, Twitter and WhatsApp, a quick search of Shafipour’s name in Farsi finds dozens of posts featuring a video that she says sketches out lies about her finances and sexual activities. On Instagram, someone paid to promote one of the posts like an ad, showing the video to more people. Worse, accounts that sort of look like they belong to Iranian progressives regularly imply that she’s been compromised and switched sides.

The aim is “to isolate me from my community,” Shafipour says. “They don’t do it for just a short period of time. They do it for years. They continue telling lies about you, and it really works, after years.” She has struggled with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, linked in part to time she spent in prison starting in 2014 on charges of “propaganda against the regime” and “assembly and collusion against national security.” While she was locked up, Shafipour’s jailers tormented her by lying about her mother having died. When her mother really did die, in December 2019, the online libel grew worse: Videos began to circulate calling her a spy for the regime.