An Iranian state television streaming website has acknowledged suffering "technical issues" as a dissident hacker group that calls itself Edalat-e Ali (Ali's Justice) said it had played an anti-government message on the platform.
Telewebion said it suffered “infrastructure” irregularities and an archive failure on February 2, without elaborating on the cause.
The problems were announced as a video message in Persian that was sent to RFE/RL claiming to be from the self-described group of hackers.
In the video, which reportedly played on the Telewebion streaming platform, a masked man appears and a muffled voice says the Iranian regime “will no longer silence us.”
"We'll burn hijabs. We'll burn their pictures and propaganda posters," the voice says while in the background a young woman is taking off her hijab. "We will break their idols. We will reveal their palaces so that the people can punish them."
In August, Ali's Justice released footage showing harsh conditions in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran that it claimed it obtained through a hack.
Last week, hackers gained access to several Iranian state television channels and broadcast pictures of an exiled dissident group, as well as a message saying Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei should be executed.
The hacks came as the Islamic republic is due to kick off official celebrations this month to mark the 43rd anniversary of the revolution that toppled U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Iran has been targeted recently by a series of cyberattacks such as one in October that disrupted the sale of heavily subsidized gasoline.
An earlier cyberattack on Iran’s railway system caused chaos and train delays.
Iran has blamed such attacks on archfoes United States and Israel.
