Fact Check: Protests in Iran? Old, edited videos go viral after Israel's attack
Following Israel's Operation Rising Lion against Iran on June 13, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Iran's people in a video message, calling the nation an 'evil and oppressive regime' and urging Iranians to unite against their government in the pursuit of freedom.Amid this, two videos have gone viral on social media. The first video shows armed forces members lathi-charging a crowd to disperse them. An X user shared the clip and wrote, 'BREAKING: Protests against the regime have begun in IRAN.'BREAKING: Protests against the regime have begun in Iran. pic.twitter.com/soQK6ncAaf— Eli Afriat (@EliAfriatISR) June 15, 2025advertisementThe second video shows smoke coming from a building's rooftop, with several people on the ground using their phones to record the scene. A recurring slogan is audible in the video's background. A Facebook user shared the clip and wrote: 'BOOOOM Protests are spreading across Tehran. In the video, the crowd chants: Death to Khamenei.'
India Today Fact Check found that the first video dates back to December 2017 and has no connection to the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict. And the second video shows Iranian citizens merely observing the damage following the Israeli strike on June 13.OUR PROBEA reverse image search of keyframes from the first video led us to the same clip shared on the official X account of Voice of America's Persian news network, VOA Farsi, on December 29, 2017. According to the police, the police attacked a peaceful protest in Kermanshah, attempting to disperse the demonstrators and arresting several people in the process. This means that the video has no connection to the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.# . .https://t.co/EJ5AlfA7R1 pic.twitter.com/qjcozgcykY— VOA Farsi (@VOAfarsi) December 29, 2017advertisementWe found several news reports about this incident, which stated that on December 29, 2017, anti-government protests erupted in several Iranian cities, including Kermanshah, due to economic decline, corruption, and lack of freedoms.Demonstrators reportedly chanted slogans like 'death to the dictator' and 'death to Rouhani', targeting Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and then-President Hassan Rouhani. In response, the police used tear gas to disperse the crowds and arrested 52 people.Reverse-searching keyframes from the second video led us to the same clip in an Instagram post dated June 13. The post was captioned, 'Disturbing videos of last night's Israeli drone attack on Iran.' However, unlike the viral video, there was no slogan in the background; instead, the sounds of ordinary people talking could be heard.Additionally, the same video appeared in a report published by the Spanish news outlet El Debate on June 13, and on the official YouTube channel of the Turkish state-run media outlet TRT Haber. In both instances, there was no slogan — only the background noise of regular conversations. From this, it is evident that the slogan was edited into the video later. Notably, we did not find any reports of anti-government protests in Iran related to the recent Iran-Israel war. Conversely, following the Israeli attack on June 13, public demonstrations expressing support for the Iranian government and condemning Israel occurred in various locations nationwide, including Tehran.advertisementThus, it is evident that these two videos do not show any domestic protests against the regime in Iran.(Written By Surajuddin Mondal)Must Watch
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