Operation Spider (Iran)

The operation was publicized in January 2015 with a statement by IRGC's "The Center for Investigation of Organized Crime".

[4] On January 31, a statement by the Center for Investigation of Organized Cyber Crimes was published that stated several Facebook users had been arrested in a surveillance project by the IRGC named "Operation Spider" that is aimed at identifying and rooting out Facebook pages and activities that spread "corruption" and western-inspired lifestyles.

The statement also says they "received indirect and covert support from the Western governments and had targeted a remarkable number of Facebook users in the guise of cultural and social pages over a span of two years".

[5] In 2016, Operation Spider II was used to detect Iranian models posting images of themselves online not wearing a headscarf.

[6] The Iranian models were arrested and forced to give public self-criticism for posting the pictures.