British journalist recounts ordeal being victim of online anti-Iran harassment campaign

By Robert Carter

As the Trump-led White House continues to pump out inhumane sanctions against Iran, a vicious network of Twitter trolls has been pushing similar anti-Iran rhetoric, targeting anyone who dares speak out – including me.

Over the past three days, I’ve been the victim of a harassment campaign by what I can only describe as foul-mouthed bots, attempting to intimidate and smear me for voicing condemnation of western sanctions.

The accounts often tweet messages backing regime change in Iran and calling for an end to the rule of the “mullahs”.

Many of the accounts also frequently voice their support for the former Western-backed Pahlavi dictatorship which brutally ruled over Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution liberated the country.

Some trolls are Islamophobic and attempt to portray Iran as a non-Muslim country, totally void of fact and reality of Iranian history.

Many just hurl abuse at me personally. This has persisted for days and targets all my tweets mentioning Iran or the unjust sanctions.

But most shockingly of all, was that many of the accounts claimed (falsely) to be Iranians themselves and that they supported US sanctions, even during a deadly pandemic!

This transparent attempt to spread misinformation regarding Iran can be perilous. Coordinated efforts to manipulate discourse on Twitter are explicitly against the platform’s rules.

However, while we often see censorship of legitimate accounts such as Yemen’s Al-Masirah English, Latin American Telesur English, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Iranian news accounts, the troll armies are getting away with fake news.

Why attack now?

Trump’s administration has aimed at maintaining a policy of “maximum pressure” against the Islamic Republic. Their strategy includes economic sanctions, blacklisting of senior Iranian officials and censoring Iranian media.

However, since the deadly COVID-19 outbreak, it appears that the U.S. is opting to weaponize the virus, refusing to ease up on sanctions which hamper Iran’s efforts at fighting the epidemic.

In response, campaigners have taken to social media to apply pressure on the U.S. to lift sanctions, even if just temporarily, to give Iranians some well-deserved breathing space.

However, the troll armies have clearly been deployed to undermine this effort. 

Twitter admits it is taking action against fake news being spread about coronavirus, so why isn’t Twitter helping Iran? A country fighting on the front lines against the bug.

Our response

On the whole, I recommend to anyone being attacked by these dodgy bots to simply ignore them. 

Bots are easy to identify and usually stop attacking an individual after a few days.

But sometimes it proves hard to resist answering back. 

If like me, you have a sense of humor, they can be used as a great way to educate real Twitter users about Iran.

Like what has the Islamic Revolution done for Iran?

And what has the Islamic Republic taken away from Iranians?

If you are self-isolating, like I am, another fun past time could be investigating each account, figuring out which are bots and highlighting it to them. 

However you choose to deal with them, just be sure to keep spreading supportive messages about Iran as well. Trust me, they will be seen and are highly appreciated by the REAL Iranians.

Robert Carter is a Press TV staff writer based in London.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

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