Reuters reports that Iran's cyber police chief confirmed that at least 53 people have been arrested in Iran for running pro-Daesh websites, according to the Tasnim news agency.
"They were mainly based in provinces near border areas or near our borders," said Iran's Police Chief Brigadier General Hossein Ashtari.
In October, Iran also cracked down on the popular messaging application Telegram. Daesh is known to use this application for secure messaging and for communication about hostages. Iran tried to make Telegram allow 'backdoor access' so Iran's Supreme Cyberspace Council could monitor the messages of Iranian citizens. Telegram declined.
Daesh is known to have a strong social media presence and recruits foreigners heavily online. The activist hacker group Anonymous recently declared a cyber war on Daesh, reporting thousands of Daesh twitter accounts and hacking a major Daesh recruiting site on the dark web.
