Facebook Leads to Father's Arrest

We’ve all seen them; that borderline explicit profile picture that would leave an employer baffled, the obscene comment regarding last year’s epic rager that could stop poor grandma’s heart; Social media users are familiar with the power of the Internet. The ability to reach million in a short time has warranted a caution label to user’s choices. In relation to the dangerous misconception among the younger generation about privacy and the Internet, 25-year-old Yashar Khameneh’s Facebook posts caused his father’s in Tehran.

While in college Khameneh joined a Facebook page that ridiculed a top Shiite Muslim imam, Ali al-Naqi al-Had, 1 of 12 imams regarded as the Prophet Mohammed’s successor. These 12 elite, locally referred to as “Infallibles,” are protected by Iranian law from ridicule.

Contributing to the page in hopes for change, Khameneh, did not consider the reach of the page in Iran. After the page’s popularity spiked in May due to an Iranian rapper’s paralleling ridicule of the imam, government officials tracked down Khameneh’s father. They requested Khameneh’s passwords to any social media used in the mocking.

Attempting to evade the punishment, Khameneh deactivated his Facebook account, which landed his father in Evin prison in Tehran, a confinement notorious for torturing inmates. Officials warned Khamneh that as long as the mocking facebook page existed, his father would remain in jail. Because he does not own the page, Khameneh must find alterenative to obtain his father’s release. For more on Khameneh and his father, check out CNN’s coverage.