By punishing Hossein Shanbehzadeh for making a point, they acknowledged he had a point
Bunch of fucking fragile babies! Doesn’t matter where it is in the world, the leaders are always 1 step away from a tantrum. Fucking grow up. You are supposed to be running the country not crying because someone insulted you.
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So, the article doesn’t say.
What the hell did the dot mean?
I got an answer from the article. Essentially this guy was a known critic of the government already having spent time in prison for very direct criticisms. So he posted a dot. A completely benign post and then the following occurred:
“[he] posted a single dot in reply to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s tweet, and that comment was liked far more than Khamenei’s original tweet”
…and…
“Iran watchers say the leadership has felt insecure about the high level of dissent in the country for a while”
So a known critic did the thing you do to your old sibling where you put your finger an inch away from them and say “What? I’m not touching you. I’m not touching you!” and then your sibling is tired of your shit and smacks you very hard.
Yeah. Russia did the same to protesters who held blank signs after the invasion of Ukraine.
Yeah, the idea is the words are illegal to say but by saying nothing you know what they are protesting.
England on the bandwagon too:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/anti-monarchy-protest-russia-police-b2166183.html
Damn, in Russia people were arrested for posting/demonstrating "no to ***”, but a single dot is a new level!
the russians also arrested some just holding up a blank white sheet of cardboard. i think it was in an area where protests are forbidden in general though. however, how does the absence of a message qualify as a protest.
In the same way and any dicktators need to keep stroking their dicks to feel good. No reason needed