TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — In Tehran in recent weeks, men have smashed cream pies into the faces of hapless bystanders on metro escalators. Actors posing as private taxi drivers have opened fire on passengers with red paint guns. Young people have tossed eggs at unwitting pedestrians.
The stream of prank videos captured on Tehran’s real-life streets and circulating on Iranian social media are not all fun and games to the Iranian authorities. Iranian police on Wednesday announced the arrest of 17 pranksters who posted the videos on a dozen Instagram pages, saying they’d incited public panic. The clips racked up thousands of views, attracting fans and imitators.
“Police strongly confronted such illegal acts,” the country’s state-run IRAN newspaper quoted Tehran police chief Gen. Hossein Rahimi as saying. “Publishing such clips plays with people’s nerves, security and…
