Iran is facing increasing nationwide protests since the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died on Sept. 16 in suspicious circumstances after her arrest for allegedly improperly wearing her hijab.
The Iranian regime has harshly clamped down on the protesters, and is reportedly aided by Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance technology in this suppression campaign.
For nearly three months, thousands of people have been rallying in daily demonstrations across Iran after Amini died. The regime’s suppression of protesters includes alleged arbitrary arrests and detentions, gender-based and sexual violence, excessive use of force, torture, enforced disappearances, and executions.
Around a week ahead of Amini’s death, during the 2022 summit of the Beijing-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Beijing-led group, Iran along with a few other countries took steps to further forge their economic and political ties with the Chinese communist regime. This growing alignment with China also manifests in these states’ adoption of technology to aid in social control, noted the MIT Technology Review….