FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
As protests against the Ayatollah continue in Iran, the Islamic regime has launched a sophisticated campaign of disinformation and fake news to quell the unrest.
At least eight people, one as young as 15, have died so far in street battles that began in Tehran on Sunday when businesses, reacting sharply to another catastrophic drop in the value of the Iranian currency, closed their doors and took to the streets. The protests quickly turned into calls to get rid of theocratic dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his ruling mullahs.
Tensions escalated further when US President Donald Trump warned Iranian authorities that he would come to the aid of peaceful protesters if the killings by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) continued. Posting on social media, he wrote: "We are armed and ready to go."
The protests have revealed that the once-powerful IRGC has been defeated in several confrontations in recent days, leading to a state-sponsored disinformation campaign. State actors have infiltrated the protests and used fake videos online in an attempt to divide opposition voices and weaken the uprising.
Opponents of the regime say that IRGC agents in plainclothes have been introduced to the protesters to sing in favor of Reza Pahlavi (the son of the deposed Shah of Iran, overthrown in the 1979 revolution), in an attempt to reframe the uprising as a monarchist movement rather than a rejection of the Ayatollahs' dictatorship. Some videos from the protests appear to support this claim.
An activist from the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the opposition party, said the tactic was intended to distract the protests from their true objective: the demand for regime change by the Iranian people.
The NCRI is led by Maryam Rajavi, who is committed to creating a democratic, secular, and non-nuclear Iran.
According to the activist, protest videos had been overdubbed with new soundtracks calling for the Shah's reinstatement and were widely posted online by state actors.
He said that “IRGC agents in civilian clothes were sent into the crowds to sing in favor of Reza Pahlavi, attempting to hijack the anti-regime movement by implying that its real goal was to restore the monarchy, thus creating division and dampening the demand for the overthrow of the regime.”
"In each case, protesters rejected these provocations, responding with calls against the Shah and the Supreme Leader. In one case, individuals identified as IRGC collaborators were caught on video engaging in this ruse."
In one widely publicized incident, individuals later identified as affiliated with the IRGC were filmed attempting to direct calls for the restoration of the monarchy. An Iranian Kurdish activist wrote on X that IRGC units in Marivan had instructed their operatives to chant pro-Pahlavi slogans if protests broke out, warning citizens to remain vigilant. Similar tactics were reported weeks earlier in Mashhad, where plainclothes agents infiltrated the funeral of an anti-regime lawyer who died under suspicious circumstances.
After chanting pro-monarchy slogans, they joined security forces in arresting those present. Protesters who confronted them seized identification cards that revealed they were members of the Basij paramilitary force.
Experts say many social media posts have revealed manipulated videos, in which original protest footage was overlaid with fabricated audio suggesting support for the Shah's son, Reza Pahlavi.
Analysis of these clips revealed inconsistent acoustics, lip-sync errors, and crowd behavior that did not match the added audio.
Poshtë dhe humbje e diktatorit Ajatollahu dhe fitore e opozitës Iranit dhe demokracia! SOLIDARIZOHEM ME PROTESTËN.
Momentet për popullin Iranian, janë pozitive për arritjen e aspiratave të tyre demokratike...! Maryam Raxhavi është udhëheqës i duhur dhe plotësisht e formuar politikisht për të cilat Iranin në nivele bashkëkohore ekonomike-politikr-shoqërore...!