Hackers send a message against the regime while the Iranian supreme leader is on state TV.
As the fourth week of mass protests begins, a government news show cuts to footage of women and girls being killed during protests. Crosshairs are drawn on the head of Supreme Leader Khamenei.
Hackers stopped an Iranian state broadcaster's top news show on Saturday, sending a message in support of anti-government protests as the fourth week of massive protests began.
The news show was showing an appearance by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei when it suddenly cut to a screen with photos of young women and girls who had been killed during the protests.
One of the pictures was of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died last month while in the custody of Iran's infamous morality police. Her death sparked the violent protests against the regime.
Above the pictures was a picture of Khamenei with a pair of crosshairs in the middle of his forehead. People have often chanted "Death to the dictator" and asked for a change in the government.
According to the London-based Iranian opposition outlet Iran International, the screen also had Farsi text that said, "The blood of our youths is on your hands" and a message telling Iranians to join the protests.
A hacker group called Edalat-e Ali said they were behind the trouble. Iran International said that the group broke into the website of Iran's state broadcaster and posted a message against the government there earlier this year.
Other hacking groups have helped the protests by attacking government websites, leaking documents, and messing with surveillance cameras.
Iran International started in 2017 and reaches a lot of Iranians in Iran and around the world. It is seen as a news source that goes against Iran's government. It has made headlines for covering things like violations of human rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and women's rights in Iran.
After Amini died on September 16, protests broke out all over the country. This was three days after she was arrested in Tehran by the notorious morality police for breaking Iran's strict dress code for women.
Iran said on Friday that a long-term illness, not "blows" to the head, caused Amini's death, even though her family said she had been healthy before.
Even though more than 90 people have died since the protests began, they kept going on Saturday. Schoolgirls chanted slogans, workers went on strike, and fights broke out all over the country.
Ultraconservative Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called for unity and posed for a photo with female students at Tehran's Al-Zahra University to try to calm things down. However, videos and photos posted on social media showed students outside the university taking off and waving their hijabs and criticizing Raisi and the regime.
In Saqez, Amini's hometown in the western province of Kurdistan, schoolgirls were heard chanting "Woman, life, freedom" and were seen marching down a street with their headscarves swinging over their heads on Saturday, according to the Hengaw rights group.
In another video it shared, a group of girls could be heard chanting the same phrase as they went into a school in Sanandaj, which is the capital of Kurdistan province. This phrase was the protest's slogan.
In another widely shared video, a man is seen changing the words "The police are the servants of the people" to "The police are the murderers of the people" on a large government billboard.
ISNA, a news agency, said that there was a lot of security in the capital, especially around universities. It said that there were "scattered and small gatherings" in Tehran, and that "some demonstrators damaged public property" during these events.
There were also reports of protests in the streets of Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, Tabriz, and other cities.
The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights says that at least 92 protesters have been killed in the crackdown, which has made things worse between Iran and the West, especially the United States.