US uses encrypted app to
connect with Iranians as coronavirus
sweeps their country
Updated 0548 GMT (1348 HKT)
March 18, 2020
Washington (CNN)The State
Department is using social media to encourage Iranians to share information
with the Trump administration -- both on an encrypted tip line and through an
online survey -- about the coronavirus pandemic that is devastating the country.
"This is
Iran's Chernobyl," said one administration official of the outbreak, who
described social media portals as a tool to bypass the Iranian regime and
connect to the country's people.
The US began
encouraging Iranians to use the encrypted messaging app last year, when Iranian
demonstrators took to the streets and US officials wanted to learn more about
the regime's bloody crackdown.
Now, with
Covid-19 devastating Iran, the tip line has been reinvigorated, administration
officials told CNN. This time, the goal is to collect information from
Iranians, find ways to share that information when it is determined to be
accurate and leverage the coronavirus in an effort to fortify a relationship
with the Iranian people, the officials said.
"The
message we are sending is we want your stories and videos. We want to see what
is happening and we will share it with you, because the Iranian regime isn't
allowing you to see it yourselves," a State Department official told CNN.
'The US is
not your enemy'
The State
Department wants to make what they are hearing public, because they do not
trust the Iranian regime's version of what is happening in their country.
"Part of
our both messaging as well as actions have always tried to signal to the people
themselves that the US is not your enemy," the administration official
said. "To the extent that we put sanctions on the regime, they are meant
to be targeted at the regime, not the people, which is why we make humanitarian
exemptions."
The novel coronavirus has
become the latest front in the simmering conflict between Washington and
Tehran. Iran accuses the US of economic terrorism, holding medication for
ransom and causing shortages of vital supplies needed to combat the virus.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly said that the US offer to help
Iran fight coronavirus has been turned down. He has also suggested that Iran
get help only if it releases wrongly detained dual and foreign national
citizens.
Now the US has relaunched its
social media outreach, coupled with harsh words for Iran from State Department
leadership.
Iranian leaders have "lied
about the Wuhan virus for weeks. The Iranian leadership is trying to avoid
responsibility for their ... gross incompetence," Pompeo said
Tuesday, speaking to reporters at the State Department.
The line, which is on the
encrypted messaging app Telegram, was initially the Rewards for Justice tip
line -- a channel for people to send in tips on terrorist suspects in return
for possible rewards worth millions.
It has received more than
130,000 responses from Iranians since last year, with about 1,300 of those related
to coronavirus, a State Department official said. The official did not quantify
how many have been useful tips, but the information is described as broadly
helpful in understanding what is really going on in Iran.
"The picture painted is
one of intimidation and mass falsifications of statistics," said the State
Department official. "We are getting the unfiltered facts."
Iran has confirmed 14,991 cases
of coronavirus and a death toll of 853, a top Iranian official announced on
state TV on Monday. The US believes the real numbers are higher. Some of the
tips from Iranians are that the country's medical professionals are being
forced to cite the reason for death as a respiratory illness, rather than the
coronavirus.
Surveying Iranians
Beyond anecdotal information,
the State Department is also embarking on a data-based effort to figure out how
many Iranians really have the virus.
That effort began last week,
when State's Farsi account -- @USAdarFarsi -- tweeted out a survey for Iranians
to fill out.
"Please take the time to
respond to this anonymous survey and link it to everyone you know in
Iran," the Friday post reads in Farsi.
Around 7,000 Iranians have
taken the 37-question survey in the three days since it was posted, a State
Department official told CNN. As State processes the responses, it has data
scientists with epidemiological backgrounds, as well as multiple fluent Farsi
speakers, on the team.
The State Department is working
to verify the information coming in, crosschecking the tips where possible with
other sources, such as human rights organizations, and checking to see if a
high number of tips say the same thing, the official said.
The size of the State
Department team reviewing these thousands of tips remains unclear, but the
information is not sitting in a black hole. Some of the tips from Iranians have
been highlighted in Pompeo's speeches.
Publicly, US officials say they
have worked hard to facilitate a channel for humanitarian trade with Iran that
won't fall afoul of its sanctions regime. Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif
has recently said it is "virtually impossible" for Iranians to import
medicine and medical equipment due to a web of penalties the Trump
administration has put in place.
The Iranian regime has also
turned down Pompeo's offer to aid in its effort to cope with the pandemic.
Last week, Pompeo also went
after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after he tweeted that there is some
evidence the virus may be a biological attack.
"As @Khamenei_ir knows,
the best biological defense would've been to tell the Iranian people the truth
about the Wuhan virus when it spread to #Iran from China," Pompeo wrote on
Twitter. "Instead, he kept Mahan Air flights coming and going to the
epicenter in China and jailed those who spoke out."
The administration official
called the tips that have come in on the Telegram app "whistleblowing
information," in that messages were contradicting the Iranian government's
formal statements. The official did not acknowledge that few countries have definitive
numbers on infected citizens, as the virus is moving quickly, testing in many
countries is falling short and carriers can be asymptomatic.
"Where the official
government was publishing specific stats, where people were sending us things
saying -- I was just at this medical center in Qom and I can tell you that I
saw dozens of people -- in the respiratory ward that are likely
corona-related," the official said. "And so it's just not just one
person, but multiple people."
A new frontier
The tips are about "particular
facilities that people have seen coronavirus victims, particular regions,
particular misstatements by the officials," the officials said. "We
have a constant flow of information with thousands of Iranians as a result of
setting up this channel."
The Trump administration has
long turned to social media as a tool to engage the Iranian people, and recent
efforts make it clear that it continues to strengthen the effort.
Conrad C. Crane, chief of
historical services for the US Army Heritage and Education Center of the US
Army War College, said social media has "opened up all kind of new
windows" for information warfare.
"It's a new frontier in
information," said Crane, who added that he had heard the State Department
had started some initiatives. "I'm impressed to see somebody taking
advantage of it," he said of State's efforts to reach Iranians directly
through messaging apps and social media. "Obviously, this is what the
Russians have been doing to us."
"The question is who is
coordinating this effort, who is screening it, who is coordinating the
messaging?" Crane continued. "The danger is making sure your
messaging is consistent."
At this moment, the effort is
run out of the State Department through the office of the special
representative for Iran, Brian Hook, which officials say helps them to keep
their message consistent. Some of the information is shared with the
intelligence community.
The State Department is
acknowledging receipt of the information that it is being given, in an effort
to let those providing the tips know that there is someone on the other side
listening and reading.
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