Iranian police summon individuals for manipulating presidential election polls

The Iranian cyber security police have identified and summoned four people for publishing fake online opinion polls on the snap presidential elections scheduled to be held on Friday.

Col. Davoud Moazzami Goudarzi, the head of the Iranian cyber police FATA, told ISNA news agency on Saturday that the individuals changed the results of polls by using bots on the internet.

He warned spreading false information about candidates or hurling insults, smear campaigns, fake polls, and calling on people to boycott the elections are instances of crimes that can lead to arrest.

Col. Goudarzi did not specify in favor of which candidates the individuals were tampering the results, but some opinion polls have surfaced on the internet claiming to be conducted by the state television, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Broadcasting (IRIB). The IRIB, however, has denied the veracity of the polls.

Iranians will go to the polls on Friday, June 28, to elect one of the six presidential hopefuls to succeed the late President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash along with his accompanying delegation on May 19.

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