Claim: A video shows Iranian protesters, emboldened by US President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, setting fire to billboards of Ayatollah Khamenei in dissent.
Fact: The viral video is from protests in 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s morality police.
On 22 May 2024, a user on X (formerly Twitter) posted a video (archive) of a crowd of people running around a billboard that had caught fire. In the video, crowds can be seen throwing more items at the fire, and recording it while cheering and shouting. The post is captioned, “A billboard of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was set on fire by crowds. Iranian people are becoming bolder after Trump’s victory.”.
Mahsa Amini’s Death and 2022 Iranian Protests
On 16 September 2022 Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman, died unexpectedly while in police custody. Amini was arrested on 13 September 2022 by Iran’s morality police (Gasht-e Ershad) in Tehran for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women, and specifically for not wearing her hijab. A heart attack caused her shocking death, according to authorities. However, witnesses and family members claimed that she was severely beaten in custody, leading to her hospitalisation. A CT scan later showed a bone fracture, hemorrhage, and brain edema, thus confirming she died from injuries while in custody.
Amini’s death catalysed widespread protests across cities in Iran, including Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz. Women played a central role in these protests, publicly removing and burning their hijabs as acts of defiance and cutting their hair in solidarity. Protesters also chanted slogans such as “Woman, Life, Freedom” (“Zan, Zendegi, Azadi”) and “Death to the Dictator,” targeting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the regime’s policies. The unprecedented protests spread to the Islamic Republic’s power bases, including the Shia holy cities of Mashhad and Qom, and to ethnic minorities — notably Kurds in the country’s north and northwest, and Baloch people in the southeast, according to CNN.
The Iranian government responded with severe crackdowns, deploying security forces who used live ammunition, tear gas, and mass arrests to suppress the unrest. By the end of 2022, Iran Human Rights reported at least 551 deaths, including women and children, and thousands of arrests.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a keyword search that resulted in reports of widespread economic protests in Iran but failed to find credible reports of protesters burning billboards of Ayatollah Khamenei recently or any unrest in light of Trump’s election.
Protests erupted on 17 November 2024 as workers, retirees, and nurses demanded economic reforms to address the country’s dire financial conditions. In the city of Yasuj, nurses and healthcare staff demanded improved working conditions and wages. Simultaneously, in Shiraz, emergency personnel protested outside the provincial governor’s office for economic reform. At the same time, oil industry retirees protested in Tehran, social security retirees held demonstrations in the southern cities of Ahvaz and Shush, and steel industry retirees joined the protests in Isfahan to decry deteriorating living standards.
Only a day earlier, Iranian teachers also staged a massive protest rally in front of the Iranian parliament in Tehran, demanding better working conditions and educational reforms. Rising inflation and declining living standards have led to calls for wage increases, pension adjustments, and job security, and underscores growing frustration with the government’s inability to mitigate worsening economic challenges.
While none of the articles about these protests reported any violence or the burning of billboards or signage of Iran’s Supreme Leader, nor did any of them mention the election of Donald Trump in America as a motivating factor, Soch Fact Check cannot confirm the veracity of such reports.
Soch Fact Check then took keyframes from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search, using TinEye. This search led us to a 2022 report (archive) by The Washington Post. It detailed the violent crackdown on demonstrators following the Mahsa Amini protests. The article specifically mentions a video posted to X in September 2022 that shows protesters burning a billboard. It also included images that matched frames from the video, confirming the video is from 2022 and not from recent protests.
Additionally, we found videos posted to social media in 2022 that match the viral video, further confirming it is from 2022 and not from recent protests.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video on X here, here, and here.
Conclusion: While the video does show protesters setting fire to a billboard in Iran, it is from 2022 and not 2024. The video was filmed during the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, not during any recent protests. Moreover, Soch Fact Check did not find any credible evidence to suggest that Trump’s recent victory in the 2024 US Presidential Election has sparked any protests in Iran.
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