Iranian authorities are offering conflicting accounts after false earthquake warnings were set off on Android smartphones as they grapple with nationwide protests following the death of Mercer Amini.
Colonel Ramin Pashaei, deputy chief of Iran’s cyber police, told Iran’s state television that only Android phones received false alerts. He blamed tests at state-owned service his provider Iran Mobile his communications company for the alert.
Meanwhile, Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA said the incident was a hack and that the message was fake, telling its citizens not to leave their homes.
Two conflicting explanations for events were not immediately reconciled.
US imposes sanctions on Iranian officials and morality police over Martha Amini’s death
It has been two months since mass protests erupted in Iran after the death of 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in Tehran while in moral police custody.
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The movement continues to gain momentum in the Middle East and continues to gain global attention despite continued violence and repression at the hands of the Iranian regime.
A social media video has gone viral showing authorities demolishing the family home of climber Ernaz Rekavi, who competed in an international competition without a headscarf in October.
Rekavi later claimed that she had done so unintentionally, but it was widely believed that she had voiced her support for the protest.
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Iranian officials have repeatedly cut off mobile internet connections since the Amini protests began, banning two of the country’s most popular social media outlets that citizens used to share human rights abuses with the outside world. It blocked access to the services Instagram and WhatsApp.
Amini’s death sparks a call to overthrow Iran’s theocracy, one of the biggest challenges facing Tehran since the chaotic years following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Wearing.
Human rights group HRANA said 469 protesters, including 64 minors, had been killed as of last week. It also said 61 government security forces had been killed by the violent regime. As many as 18,210 protesters are believed to have been arrested.
Android software company Google did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the incident.
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The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this post.
