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Journalist Maziar Bahari, whose memoir "And Then They Came for Me" about his 118 days of imprisonment and torture in Iran has been made into the film "Rosewater," says that the frustration over the inability to control social media and the internet has driven authoritarian regimes deeper into their comfort zones of imprisoning, torturing, and murdering the messengers.

"These are analogue regimes resorting to all their old methods of suppression of information," says Mr. Bahari in a phone interview. "They are used to controlling people through imprisonment, murder, shutting down newspapers and radio stations. They can't handle what the Internet is doing in the way of generating social movements and facilitating communication."

He added, "Social media is a phenomenon that even Mark Zuckerberg himself has no idea how to control."

"So imagine being one of these authoritarian regimes," Bahari added. "They don't like to rock the boat. That's what social media is all about and it makes them very angry."

Journalists, as suppliers of internet and social media fodder are what could be referred to as Analogue Enemy Number One.

Bahari, a native of Iran, returned to the country in 2009 to cover the presidential election and the subsequent protests challenging the results that kept President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power, according to his memoir.

After shooting news video of the protests, he was arrested.

"Rosewater," named after the scent worn by Bahari's tormentor, is written and directed by "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart.

The film offers disturbing revelations of how Iranian officials chose to "weaponize" Bahari's appearance on the show, which has a large following online and on social media platforms.

The journalist participated in a comedy sketch wherein he met with a "spy" actually Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones in sunglasses in Iran. During his imprisonment, Bahari's jailers tortured him and repeatedly made reference to the show as the premise for accusing him of espionage, Bahari explained.

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'Rosewater' journalist says fear of social media is making tyrants more dangerous (+video)