DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — When Ellie, a British-Iranian living in the United Kingdom, tried to call her mother in Tehran, a robotic female voice answered instead.

“Alo? Alo?” the voice said, then asked in English: “Who is calling?” A few seconds passed.

“I can’t heard you,” the voice continued, its English imperfect. “Who you want to speak with? I’m Alyssia. Do you remember me? I think I don’t know who are you.”

Ellie, 44, is one of nine Iranians living abroad — including in the U.K and U.S. — who said they have gotten strange, robotic voices when they attempted to call their loved ones in Iran since Israel launched airstrikes on the country a week ago.

They told their stories to The Associated Press on the condition they remain anonymous or that only their first names or initials be used out of fear of endangering their families.

Five experts with whom the AP shared recordings said it could be low-tech artificial intelligence, a chatbot or a pre-recorded message to which calls from abroad were diverted.

It remains unclear who is behind the operation, though four of the experts believed it was likely to be the Iranian government while the fifth saw Israel as more likely.

Only the second most terrifying story I’ve read today

  • lacaio da inquisição
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    47
    ·
    1 day ago

    The article criticized the closing of the Internet by Tehran, but the Internet is clear vulnerability that can be exploited in times of war.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      54
      ·
      1 day ago

      It’s also something that allows people to organize to overthrow an oppressive authoritarian regime.

      But this particular authoritarian regime is apparently good because they want to wipe Israel off the map, so I guess we need to pretend everything they do is for the best.

        • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          4 hours ago

          Iran, look what they were wearing!

          Then they stole all those expensive bombs with their devious residential buildings and science facilities!

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          22
          ·
          22 hours ago

          Are greater power responsible for the actions of their proxies?

          Before you answer, remember the answer to that question applies to both sides in this conflict.

            • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              13
              ·
              21 hours ago

              Is Iran responsible for what Hamas does with the weapons and munitions they supply them?

              Is the US responsible for what Israel does with the weapons and munitions they supply them?

              Do you have the same answer for both of these questions?

              • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                3 hours ago

                You really are a master of defending the indefensibly monstrous. Not well, but in such a way as to piss literally everyone off and insult every living thing almost separately!

                • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  3 hours ago

                  It’s cool, take your time in answering the questions. Critical thinking can be difficult for those that haven’t had a lot of practice with it. There’s no time limit to answer the questions, and the third question is rhetorical, so don’t worry about that one.

                • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  3 hours ago

                  Thanks! Have read Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”?

                  The trick is to figure out a way that forces people to actually think about an issue. People hate thinking!

                  But it’s really important for people to think about things. In case you haven’t noticed, a lot of things in the world are going in a bad way and too many people are on autopilot just quoting bullshit from the internet. Not good to let algorithms think for you.

              • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                4 hours ago

                No, because I’m sane. How much do you get paid for this? I’m an insufferable piece of shit willing to tell insane lies for no reason, and looking for work. Or, I mean I’ve got a friend who is.

              • xenomor@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                6 hours ago

                Hamas is justifiably resisting a violent occupation. Also, the US has been participating far more directly in the apartheid and genocide than just supplying munitions.

              • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                6 hours ago

                Are you making it about Hamas now?
                Palestine has the right to defend itself from colonisers, anything Hamas does is pisrahells fault. FAFO Go cry somewhere else

              • AES_Enjoyer@reddthat.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                11
                ·
                17 hours ago

                Is Iran responsible for what Hamas does with the weapons and munitions they supply them?

                Yes, Iran is responsible for supplying weapons to Palestinians in their legitimate right of violent defense against an occupying force. Don’t you like international law or what?

                Is the US responsible for what Israel does with the weapons and munitions they supply them?

                Yes, the US is responsible for keeping the weapon deliveries to a genocidal apartheid state.

                Are you, by any chance, trying to somehow equate Israeli genocidal violence to Palestinian militant defence against a genocidal occupying force?

                • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  12
                  ·
                  10 hours ago

                  So Iran is complicit in massacring villages and taking hostages on October 7. Do you think masscring villages is not an act of war?

                  Are you, by any chance, trying to somehow equate Israeli genocidal violence to Palestinian militant defence against a genocidal occupying force?

                  No I don’t equate massacring entire villages(what Hamas did) with taking military action to free hostages taken by terrorists (what Israel is doing).

                  • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    4
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    4 hours ago

                    do you think massacring villages is not an act of war (as a defense of the protocols of the elders of Zion larp group)

                    Slow clap

                    This is a masterpiece. Thank you sir.

                  • Bloomcole@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    ·
                    3 hours ago

                    Most were deliberately killed by their own diaper forces to create what they themselves called ‘our 9/11’
                    Deliberately ignored the warnings and moved that shitty festival in a terribly dangerous place next to the open air prison, not unlike what the US did with Pearl Harbor.
                    Furthermore these monsters always lie. There was no massacring, even the hostages captured coloniser scum (many of them also diaper forces) are still alive unfortunately.
                    Except the ones the colonisers shot while waving a white flag 😂 and the many bombed by the coloniser terrorists.

                    Hamas are saints compared to these ziomonsters.
                    The genocide in Gaza makes me furious but now seeing shitrahell being hit really hard warms my heart.
                    Go cry somewhere else hasbara clown.
                    Enjoy:
                    https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/22/world/video/iranian-missile-strike-on-tel-aviv-nic-robertson-vrtc

                    There’s plenty more but can’t not show this cunt and the anti-semitic pole the entire world is laughing at:
                    https://packaged-media.redd.it/0aqs8os2vg8f1/pb/m2-res_586p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1750629600&s=a7a27540386c36180eeffe6c1735abe08c1d26c3

                    🤣 😂 🤣

                  • xenomor@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    5
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    2 hours ago

                    I just love western logic that decries killing civilians as terrorism when one side does it, but rationalizes the same act when the other side does it in an efficient, mechanized way with orders of magnitude more death and destruction.

                  • AES_Enjoyer@reddthat.com
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    5
                    ·
                    10 hours ago

                    No, it’s not an act of war, it’s violent resistance against an occupying force. As much as you probably believe Ukrainians have a right to defend themselves from Russian invasion, more so do Palestinians.

                    massacring entire villages(what Hamas did)

                    Bullshit genocidal propaganda. No wonder you get banned, you Nazi scum

            • pishadoot@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              7
              arrow-down
              9
              ·
              22 hours ago

              The most prevalent proxies are the houthis and Hezbollah, which Iran has been arming, financially supporting, and influencing for about two decades now so they can attack Israel without getting themselves into an all out war with Israel and the USA, which they know they would likely lose.

              Argue all you want about whether or not Israel should have bombed Iran, but calling it unprovoked is extremely disingenuous.

              • AES_Enjoyer@reddthat.com
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                11
                ·
                17 hours ago

                By that logic, half the world has the right to bomb the USA for arming proxies all over the world, though.

                Also, why are you jumping to defend the actions of a state currently committing genocide against Palestinians?

                • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 hours ago

                  right to bomb the USA

                  I live here and I wouldn’t hold it against them. Please stay out of DTLA though. With the bombs; totally get your last meal there if you’re headed to like Raytheon or something in OC, you won’t regret it

                  Palestinians count as people

                  Oof you’re not gonna convince a protocols larper of that one.

                • pishadoot@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  3
                  ·
                  9 hours ago

                  I’m not defending Israel. I’m answering this guy’s question, like wHaT PrOxIeS??

                  You can straw man all you want, but not once have I defended Israel’s actions. Just because Israel is shit to gazans doesn’t mean that Iran is not also shit to Israel. Straw man.

                  If we want to have a legitimate conversation about morality then we start by agreeing on facts.

                  Trying to claim Iran did nothing wrong is not factual.

                  • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    3 hours ago

                    Iran does plenty wrong. Not to zionazis.

                    And not just because nothing is inexcusable when done rozionazi protocols LARPers

                    But because there’s an existential threat that always attacks first, multiple times,before Iran retaliates.

                  • AES_Enjoyer@reddthat.com
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    2
                    ·
                    9 hours ago

                    The Houthis and Hezbollah are the only people in the world with a spine to attempt some fight against the 21st century Nazis, Iran arming them is a moral thing. The Nazis weren’t defeated with nice words in the previous century, and they won’t be in this one either.

                • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  9 hours ago

                  Hamas is an Israeli product that attacked itself on purpose. They couldn’t have done it without help from Papa Yahoo.

                  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    ·
                    8 hours ago

                    Well since we’re just putting random words together, two can play at that game! Netanyahu is a Hamas product! Netanyahu wouldn’t be Prime Minister if it weren’t for Hamas! Switcharoo, I win!

      • Zannsolo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        22 hours ago

        Iran sucks, Israel sucks too.

        I don’t want Israel wiped off the map. I just want Netanyahu to crawl in a hole and off himself like his hero Hitler.

        • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 hours ago

          I don’t want the stronghold of protocols LARPers wiped off the map

          Why not? A shot at stabilizing the region sounds pretty good after the past century. Feel like the people kind of deserve a moment of not having to watch their fucking back’s every second.

            • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              3 hours ago

              No. I’m arguing that if we have to choose a genocide, I have a preference.

              I’d much rather not have any, but the protocols LARPers don’t seem like they’re gonna leave that on the table, so I think, if it comes to that, and I think that’s a weeks-not-years kind of timeline; it should be them that goes

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          21 hours ago

          Something we can’t know at the moment. Their state media has taken some hits, so it’s possible they lost capabilities in monitoring internet traffic.

      • FlyingCircus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 day ago

        Well according to the Democrats, I should always support the lesser of two evils, so now Iran is good. /s

        For real though, it’s called critical support. You can support Iran’s right to defend against genocide while simultaneously criticizing their human rights abuses.

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          18
          ·
          1 day ago

          So it’s ok for you to give “critical support” to an authoritarian regime, but super bad for someone to give “critical support” to Israel for fighting against an authoritarian whose proxies massacred villages? Why isn’t Iranian proxies massacring villages, Iran itself firing missiles at civilian populations (including a hosptial) something you don’t consider to be genocide?

          How do you determine which genocide you support and which genocide you’re against?

          • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            3 hours ago

            Oh, so authoritarian regimes whose proxies massacre villages are bad now?

            Fuck you. Stop talking shit about my country. Especially while you occupy one of those proxies.

          • FlyingCircus@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            8 hours ago

            No, I don’t give critical support to Israel because they are a settler colonial project who, along with the US and other Western powers, started all of the troubles in the Middle East in the first place.

            No critical support for imperialists.

          • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            11
            ·
            1 day ago

            Attacking civilians doesn’t automatically make it a genocide. If that were true, then pretty much every war ever was a genocide.

            • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              11
              ·
              23 hours ago

              So why is the Israel-Hamas war considered a genocide? Is it a numbers thing? Most other wars throughout history had many more civilian casualties than there’s been in the Israel-Hamas war.

              What makes the Israel-Hamas war a genocide and for example, the Vietnam war not be considered a genocide?

              • hraegsvelmir@ani.social
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                6
                ·
                22 hours ago

                What makes the Israel-Hamas war a genocide and for example, the Vietnam war not be considered a genocide?

                Because Vietnam was a war of ideologies, not a land grab intended to wipe out the current occupants so they could be entirely replaced by a “superior, chosen” people not of the ethnicity of the current residents.

                This is such a mindblowingly stupid attempt at a gotcha question. Ffs, you literally had over a million Vietnamese fighting on the same side as the US in the ARVN during the course of the war. The belligerent parties in a conflict both being composed of largely the same peoples fighting each other tends to preclude it being described as a genocide.

                • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  10
                  ·
                  22 hours ago

                  Not menitioning the events of October 7 and the fact that Hamas is still holding Israelis hostage is a rather glaring omission there.

                  Iran has stated many times their goal to wipe Israel off the map. Is that not them saying they only want their “chosen people” living in the area? So under your definition of genocide, Iran is committing a genocide. If the fact that Israel was attacked on October 7 is irrelevant, then the fact that Israel attacked Iran in this iteration of hostilities between them is also irrelevant. Iran has the officially stated goal of wiping Israel off the map, Iran has killed Israeli civilians, therefore Iran has committed genocide (according your definition of it).

                  • hraegsvelmir@ani.social
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    ·
                    21 hours ago

                    Kindly refrain from putting such stupid words in my mouth, and keep them in your own, where it seems they rightly belong, thank you.

                    You asked about Israel and Hamas, then instantly conflated this particular conflict with a broader conflict to come between Israel and Iran, which are not the same thing. That’s beyond moving the goal posts, we’re no longer even discussing the same events. You’re also conflating Israel with Jews as a whole here. Calling for the state of Israel to no longer exist and calling for all Jewish residents within its borders to be either killed or displaced are two rather distinct things.

                    I know of no definition in which a single attack in isolation, or merely killing civilians during a war, is considered to constitute genocide. Even if this were the case, the civilian casualties in the many conflicts between Israel, Hamas, and more or less all of Israel’s neighbors in the region have been decidedly lopsided. Israel suffers far fewer civilian deaths than those they inflict on others, so even if we were to entertain the notion that Hamas’ resistance to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories constitutes a genocide and we accept that the Iranian regime is in some major capacity responsible for such actions because they provide funding and support to Hamas (which, lol, even Israeli media admits Israel did, too), just going by the casualties, we’d have to conclude that Israel is either a decidedly more genocidal regime, better at genocide, or both.

                    Israel continues to interfere in the affairs of other sovereign nations, support settlers stealing other peoples’ land and is actively engaging in a brutal genocide. If the Israeli state were to be dismantled and Israel ceased to exist as a nation, I could only say that it’s past time for it to happen. And before you put more hysterical words in my mouth, note well: Israel no longer existing as a sovereign theocratic ethnostate and the Jews who currently live in the region being in any way harmed are two entirely separate things. Calling for a particular state to no longer exist is not a call for genocide, in and of itself.

                    Tl;dr: Get lost with your hasbara attempts, they’re woefully transparent.

                  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    3
                    ·
                    21 hours ago

                    I think both Iran and Israel are guilty of atrocities, and Israel has been worse recently in their treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. I don’t think either amounts to genocide, since genocide has the intent of eliminating a race from existence (e.g. Jews in the Holocaust). I don’t think Israel wants to eliminate Palestinians (the people), they just want to eliminate Palestine (the country). I don’t think Iran wants to eliminate Jews or Israelis, they want to eliminate Israel (the country).

      • Tuxman@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        1 day ago

        Nah… take the Iranian government, then take the Israel government… and throw them both into the Thunderdome!

        Pay-per-view that shit! (And use the proceeds to help innocent rebuild their lives)

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          10
          ·
          1 day ago

          It’s a war, not a game. One of the problems we have is people considering this conflict involving a lot of human suffering like it’s a sport and taking sides and generally acting like complete psychopaths around it. The anti-Israel crowd seem to want Palestians to suffer more so they can continue to have more propaganda to prove Israelis are evil.

          I want the Israeli people being held hostage by Hamas to be released and the war there to be ended as soon as possible to stop the suffering of Palestinians caught in the middle of a war and to stop the suffering of those hostages. I want Iran to give up it’s nuclear program and stop supporting terrorism across the Middle East so that war will end so Iranians and Israelis won’t be killed or maimed by exchanges of missiles and air strikes.

          It is possible to have empathy for Israelis, Palestinians, and Iranians you know. Though if you do the psychos on all sides who think of this like it’s a game will all hate you.

          But fuck’ em, they’re psychopaths.