PROFILE: #MahsaAmini: Iranian Twitter Activism in Times of Computational Propaganda

Abstract

This paper discusses 1) how #MahsaAmini has become a significant hybrid movement in Iran and 2) how it is taking Twitter activism into the post-fake news era. I will begin by reviewing the existing literature on Twitter and democracy. Then, I will discuss the roots of the #MahsaAmini, which make it a hybrid movement. Further, I will show how Iranians have circumvented the regime’s fake news campaigns and cyber army. This paper argues that while non-democratic regimes have developed more complex methods of suppressing digital protests, these efforts are ineffective in large-scale protests.