[Thread] 1/ There's a massive Twitter attack on @bbcpersian with the hashtag "Islamic Republic of BBC". The hashtag is obviously designed to attack BBC Persia for any sort of perceived succour it is seen to be giving to Iran. It's not a new trope. 
2/ The sample I downloaded of around 40,000 interactions from around 5500 unique accounts is very dense, as you can see from the graph. This suggests it's non-organic in the sense it is an arranged campaign from a small number of accounts, and within a non-diverse community
3/ Indeed, this screenshot from an account whose name translates as 'regime toppler' + storm (via @maasalan ) also states that it is a 'twitter storm'. Whether or not the implication is that it is non-organic is not clear, but 'storm' would suggest so.
4/ As you can see, the purpose of the 'storm' is to target @bbcpersian. You can see from the graph t he account with the most inward traffic is BBC Persian. Whoever is running the campaign is trying also to get the attention of Boris Johnson, Trump, and other BBC accounts
5/ Some of the most active accounts (i.e. the ones who tweet, RT or reply using the hashtag most) are visualised below. One of them - lesamourai1967 is very active, and describes himself as a proud Iranian American + MAGA
6/ On the list below are some of the other most active accounts. This one 0x__dead - seems to be a pro-Pahlavi royalist account. Another top account is this one with the same banner as lesamourai - a weird MAGA and seemingly pro-Royalist account
7/ Plenty more top tweeters following the same royalist, anti-Islamic aesthetic and discourse. Personal favourites, George Orwell and the Imperial Robots (would be a good band name). Also thrown in, support from a generic-looking LGBTQ account
8/ Some highly retweeted accounts on the hashtag included the following. This Faryad Zan account links to a sketchy looking newsite about Iran called Iran True. The About Us section is lolz "which let’s be honest, everything is political these days". Wut....
9/ Iran True's Twitter account was set up in Feb 2020. Don't know how relevant this website is, but it was also set up on 13 January 2020. Their About Us section convinces me they definitely don't have an axe to grind.
10/ Of course most of the accounts that tweeted on the hashtag are not verified. Pink means unverified. Some of those verified using the hashtag are Saeed Ghasseminejad from @FDD (surprise surprise) He seems to believe that the hashtag represents Iranian 'netizens'.
11/ Another verified account to tweet the hashtag is Nariman Gharib, who also seems to be of the opinion that the accounts represent virtual activists - it is not clear on what evidence that is based.
12/ Some beg to differ, @MaysamBehravesh , who is doing a PhD at Lund University, suggests that such hashtags are being led by the aforementioned Nariman Gharib and Amin Abeti - who are connected to the news channel Iran International, broadcast from UK - and with Saudi funding
13/ Although I didn't get all the tweets, the storm appears to have not really gone beyond a specific community ostensibly tasked with generating it. Although this Kuwaiti broadcaster Ahmad Alwahidah picked it up - checked the little blue satellite here >
14/ So to sum up it seems that this as an orchestrated campaign attempting to portray BBC Persian as being Pro-Regime in Iran. I can't comment on BBC Persian but it seems strange that activists would devote so much energy to focusing on BBC persian. Given the prominence of
15/ right wing accounts, pro-Royalist accounts it would also appear that whoever is backing this is not an organic cross-section of Iranian activists (I am no expert on Iran) but rather the same type of right-wing, pro-Trump & pro-regime change accounts we see so often on Twitter
16/ Interestingly, according to @NegarMortazavi the FDD staff mentioned before worked with an entity known to have abused activists using social media campaigning. The other, Nariman Gharib, is connected to Saudi funded Iran International too via @MaysamBehravesh
Correction: It should be Amin Sabeti not Abeti
