A pro-Israel group has posted a $1 million bounty for the capture of Iranian Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi on X, prompting a petition condemning both the threat and the platform’s decision to promote the incitement.
“Terror Alarm” is crowdfunding a $1 million bounty for the capture of Marandi, a well-known Iranian academic and media personality renowned for his passionate defence of the Islamic Republic.
The official Terror Alarm X account posted the threat openly, which X originally had refused to remove, but has since been deleted:
“We are crowdfunding $1 million for a bounty for the capture of Mohammad Marandi, advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader and frequent IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]-aligned propagandist. We want him alive.”
Despite thousands of complaints to X, the post was not originally removed, but rather promoted as a “paid partnership,” meaning the platform itself was profiting from the incitement.
The petition, which has amassed over 1,135 signatures at the time of this article, is calling on people to support Professor Marandi, which will then send the signed letter to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council and United Nations Special Rapporteurs to express to them the “grave violation of human rights that has been allowed to occur.”
Who is Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi?
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Born in the US, Marandi is an Iranian-American academic, political analyst, and popular media commentator from the University of Tehran.
He has frequently appeared on international media to discuss Middle Eastern politics and is a strong supporter of the Islamic Republic, and is often heard defending Iran’s foreign policy and staunchly criticising Western actions (particularly those of the US and Israel).
The petition described Professor Marandi as being a “speaker of truth”: “Professor Marandi has spoken truth to power whilst under the US-Israeli bombardment of Iran. His right to use his freedom of speech as an academic has been met with many threats of violence against him, which includes a bounty listing in an attempt to silence him. We cannot allow a blatant and detrimental silencing of academics; this is both an attack on academic freedom and also human rights.”
Who is “Terror Alarm”?
Founded in 2016, Terror Alarm has built a global following of a quarter of a million followers on X.
The company began as a supposed anti-terror app, before it rebranded as a private security firm, and then finally becoming an EU-registered NGO.
Describing itself as a “highly accredited private security firm that not only alerted authorities about terrorist attacks as they happened but also helped thwart many acts of terror at the height of the 2014–2017 ISIS attacks in Europe,” it offers a variety of security services, including private bodyguarding, background checks, legal services, brand protection, and evidence compilation.
The open letter
The letter, which will be sent to a number of international humanitarian organisations, calls for international condemnation of the online bounty against Professor Marandi, arguing that it constitutes incitement to violence and a threat to academic freedom.
It also calls for greater accountability from the platforms (mainly X) which host and promote such content with no repercussions.
The letter reads:
“We, the undersigned members of the international academic and intellectual community, express our full solidarity with Professor Seyyed Mohammad Marandi in condemning in the strongest possible terms the fascistic decision of X (formerly Twitter) to allow the account @Terror_Alarm to place a financial bounty on Dr Marandi.
We also condemn the role of X in allowing this bounty to be published as a “paid partnership,” thereby commercialising and legitimising this violence. After numerous users flagged the post for breaching X’s own terms and conditions, X removed the original content but went further to issue a wholly unfounded and defamatory accusation against Professor Marandi.
Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi has long been a courageous voice against war, imperialism, and genocide. He has risked his life under US-Israeli bombardment of Iran and under repressive mainstream media and social media policies in order to speak truth to power and defend the rights of the Iranian nation.
That he should now be targeted with a bounty is not only an attack on his personal safety, but an attack on the integrity of academic speech in times of war and on the right of intellectuals to speak out at the greatest personal risk.”
After calling on the X platform to remove the content and disclose the full details of the paid partnership arrangement connected to the post, the letter concluded by affirming:
“Intellectuals who risk their lives during war to speak out against aggression, atrocity, and injustice must be protected, not threatened with bounty-style campaigns.
We stand with Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi in his right to safety, freedom of expression, and academic integrity. We call upon universities, research institutions, and academic associations worldwide to publicly support him and to refuse complicity with any platform practice that monetises threats to human life.”
The letter will be sent to the following organisations:
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Human Rights Council
Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression
Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly
Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism
Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders
Special Rapporteur on Racism
Special Rapporteur on Right to Education
Special Rapporteur on Privacy (Internet)
