Curious Case of M. Yousefi: How Iran Traps its Facebook users with “Black Spider”

[Ethan]

A 27-year-old graduate student Mohammad Yousefi, was sent to prison in Iran as part of a crackdown on social media users by using “Black Spider” trapping project.

Former Green activist Mohammad Yousefi has quietly been held in detention for two months. Detention is under control of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and a case is also being built against Yousefi by the Cyber Police officials.

Yousefi is a graduate student at Tehran’s Amirkabir University and is majoring in Shipbuilding.


Cyber Police security forces commander revealed the detention of 27-year old Amirabir University and named the student as “M.Y.”

In its report, Cyber Police states that Yousefi’s arrest was the result of “Black Spider ” program, which uncovers Facebook pages management that supposedly contain content that negates the regime’s values.


IRGC (Revolutionary Guards Corps) claims that Yousefi “in his posts ridiculed the highest values and holy figures of the Shiite religion.”

The former student activist will be charged for allegedly managing “fake Facebook Pages” of several soccer players, celebrities and famous personalities and for harassing them. A case is being filed against Yousefi.

Yousefi was previously arrested in 2009 and has already spent time behind bars in Evin prison.


Referring to the ’09 arrest of Yousefi, the Cyber Policy says:

“The accused has a prior record of arrest by security forces during the time of sedition activities and has close ties to sedition collaborators. He played a large role in fomenting social unrest in cyberspace after the time of sedition.”



Another Amirkabir University’s student Majid Tavakoli was arrested as well in 2009 and Yousefi was under great pressure from Security forces for being friends with Tavakoli.

Insufficient paperwork compelled the Branch 54 of the Court of Appeals to lower Yousefi’s sentence and he was released after 161days.

It is evident from the secrecy with which the Intelligence agencies have detained Yousefi that strong case against him is being built by the security forces.


In the same report from Cyber Police, it was revealed that another individual namely “AE.R.” was also arrested however, not much information is available regarding who this other person can be.