Claim: Protesters tear down Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posters after his alleged death.
Fact: The viral video is from protests in 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police (Gasht-e Ershad)
On 18 November 2024, a user on X posted a video (archive) of Iranian protesters scaling a building and tearing down a poster of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The post is captioned, “Khamenei being in a coma or dead? Popular uprising started in Iran, pictures of religious leaders Khamenei and Khomeini are being taken down from government buildings.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check took key frames from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search using TinEye’s search engine. This search led us to a 2022 report by The Daily Mail which noted where the video was filmed writing, “In footage from Sari, the capital of northern Mazandaran province, activists tore down posters of the founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Khomeini, and Supreme Leader Khamenei on a municipality building.” The article also included screenshots of the video that match the current viral claim exactly.
Additionally, Soch Fact Check has disproven the claim that the Ayatollah was in a coma or died in a recent fact-check.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video on X here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The viral video of protesters tearing down Ayatollah Ali Khamenei posters after his death, was not filmed in 2024. It is actually from the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests.
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