Yahoo News British travel blogger and her boyfriend who are being detained in Iran are mocked by Twitter trolls
Twitter trolls are mocking British travel blogger Jolie King - who is being detained in Iran for flying a drone - for having a "white saviour complex" and claiming that she and her boyfriend were “asking for trouble”.
King was arrested alongside her boyfriend Australian boyfriend Mark Firkin in early July after allegedly flying their drone near Tehran to show supposedly dangerous countries are "safe for visitors".
The pair were in the country while undertaking a round-the-world driving expedition they had been documenting online that started in Western Australia and was due to finish in London.
The couple were reportedly arrested about 10 weeks ago, according to reports.
The couple have more than 21,000 followers on YouTube, where they document their travels as well as various forms of social media under the name, The Way Overland.
Their last YouTube video was uploaded on June 26.
Their last Instagram post was on the same day, promoting the YouTube video, and their last social media activity was in Pakistan.
While there has been outcry over their arrests, some commentators have been less than sympathetic.
One comment posted from Iran said: "Cry me a river. Iran has every right to arrest anyone who violated the law particularly that puts their interests at risk, according to the Sun website.
Another said "You're just asking for trouble. They knew very well it was illegal, and still chose to be the typical 'white tourists who break the rules'.. well now you face the consequences."
"If you don't respect the law, you get arrested in civilised part of the world. Don't fly drones without permission and licence particularly over military region. IRGC did a good job," while another wrote: "The white saviour complex in action."
Both couple's families said that they were unaware of the strict drone laws employed by the country and that the whole situation is a 'misunderstanding'.
Ms King had been “scared”, “disoriented” and “intimidated” while kept in solitary confinement, the partner of another captive in the same prison – Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – said.
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Third person detained in Iran named as Islamic Studies academic
The Australian Government named third person revealed this week to be in detention in prison in Iran as a Melbourne academic who has published work on the 2011 Arab uprisings and on authoritarian governments.
British-Australian Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a Cambridge-educated academic who is now a lecturer in Islamic Studies at Melbourne University, has been in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for almost a year, having reportedly been given a 10-year sentence.
Relations between Iran and the West have plummeted amid tensions around the Gulf of Oman, with sources saying Tehran wants to use the couple as a bargaining chip.
It is thought Iran wants to use the prisoners to secure the release of Negar Ghodskani, an Iranian woman who was arrested in Australia in 2017 and currently facing jail in the US over a conspiracy to export prohibited technology.
The Australian government has said it is assisting the families of three Australian detainees in Iran, which includes a second British-Australian woman who was arrested in a separate incident.
