HEZBOLLAH CRITICS SUFFER INTIMIDATION AND DEATH THREATS ON CLUBHOUSE APP

▶ Chat room moderators live in fear after ‘mass attacks’ from hundreds of the Iran-backed group’s supporters

Lebanese critics of Hezbollah said they received threats of violence from supporters of the group on Clubhouse, a social media app that gained popularity worldwide as a platform for debate.

Rashad, who moderates Clubhouse chat rooms in which users are critical of Hezbollah, said he lived in constant fear after receiving a death threat.

“One anonymous user said I would not make it alive past this Ramadan,” he said.

“They call us ‘collaborators’. It is very offensive – they are demonising us.”

Clubhouse, an invitation-only live-audio app, attracted more than 10 million users since it launched last April.

Users can speak to one another in chat rooms dedicated to a certain topic, with talks monitored by moderators who determine whether members can speak or simply listen.

In Lebanon, the platform was considered a safe space where people of different backgrounds could vent their frustrations about a political elite that is widely blamed for leading the country to economic collapse.

The value of the Lebanese pound plummeted against the dollar and interim finance minister Ghazi Wazni said the country would run out of money to subsidise imported basic goods by late next month.

But critics of Hezbollah said supporters of the Iran-backed group threatened and harassed users who spoke out against it on the app.

“This political class ruined my life,” Rashad said.

He blamed the country’s politicians for the economic crisis and an explosion at Beirut port last August that destroyed large areas of the city, left thousands without homes and killed more than 200 people.

“Their incompetence bankrupted my business, blew up my capital and I can’t even vent?” he said.

Representatives of Clubhouse and Hezbollah did not immediately reply to requests for comment from The National.

The app allows Lebanese to share ideas and raise political questions that are often considered taboo.

Rashad said he was able to debate Hezbollah supporters and media figures who backed the group in his role as moderator of Clubhouse chat rooms.

“I asked one of their talking heads: ‘If you are the resistance, tell me when did Iran ever fight Israel?’ They could not reply,” he said.

“Hezbollah doesn’t want these voices to reach their support base. I was so excited that there was a place where we could vent but now I’m really scared.”

Hezbollah was the only militia allowed to keep its weapons after the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990.

Zouheir, 40, said he sometimes spent more than seven hours a day moderating chat rooms on Clubhouse.

But he also reported intimidation and threats from users who support Hezbollah.

“I am used to receiving insults and threats from Hezbollah on Twitter but there is something deeply terrifying about hearing someone threaten you live on Clubhouse,” he said.

Hezbollah supporters use co-ordinated tactics to silence activists on Clubhouse, he said.

The chat rooms he moderates often become flooded with hundreds of listeners who use the same image of Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah as their profile pictures.

“Some people come in as listeners and when they notice we are talking about Hezbollah they will do a mass attack. The room will suddenly go from 70 participants to 400 with profile pictures of Hassan Nasrallah,” Zouheir said.

He said the group’s supporters routinely accused him and other Hezbollah critics of being agents for Saudi Arabia or supporters of ISIS.

“Their point is to intimidate us into silence,” said Zouheir, who remains an active Clubhouse user.

“I consider this to be a death threat. When Hezbollah says someone is an agent, they are making their blood halal.”

Threatening other Clubhouse users goes against the platform’s guidelines and those who breach the rules can be reported and blocked.

But Zouheir said it was difficult to banish users “when you get attacked by 150 or 200 accounts in one go”.

Activists said they began receiving abuse and threats on Clubhouse last month after a user named Ibrahim told Hezbollah supporters to leave a chat room in which the group was being criticised.

Ibrahim said the order came directly from Jawad Nasrallah, the son of Hezbollah’s leader. Activists said Jawad was a Clubhouse user.

In a tweet last month, he said Twitter was the only social media platform he used.

Nivine, a student who lives outside Lebanon, said she was harassed and insulted on Clubhouse after moderating discussions about Hezbollah’s weapons and their involvement in conflicts in countries such as Yemen and Syria.

She said that for the past three weeks, Hezbollah supporters had been entering chat rooms where she spoke, accusing her of being a “foreign agent” and putting pressure on moderators to shun her.

Any Clubhouse user can open a chat room and share their thoughts but moderators decide who can speak.

Nivine said supporters of Hezbollah and its ally the Amal Movement engaged her and others in conversations about sensitive topics such as Hezbollah’s presence in other countries and its role in former prime minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination in 2005.

She said that Hezbollah felt threatened by the debates she and her friends initiated with its supporters because the group’s leadership could not control what was being said in the chat rooms.

She said that while Hezbollah managed to silence many of its critics on traditional media – even blocking some broadcasters in its strongholds – “these voices have now come back even louder on Clubhouse”.

I am used to insults from Hezbollah on Twitter but it is deeply terrifying to hear someone threaten you live on Clubhouse ZOUHEIR Clubhouse moderator