A video shows a recent protest against the government in Iran.
Although the video was filmed in Iran, it isn’t recent. It actually shows 2022 protests against the compulsory wearing of headscarves for women in the country, after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini.
A video is being shared of protests in Iran with captions falsely implying it depicts recent anti-government demonstrations.
In the clip, which was shared on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook on 28 and 29 September, a large crowd of people can be seen advancing down a street and throwing objects at a vehicle with flashing blue and red lights.
A caption alongside the video says “Iran is kicking off”, adding: “Iranian people defending themselves against the oppressive armed forces of the Islamic dictatorship in Iran.” A caption with the video on Facebook says: “TODAY IRAN IS KICKING OFF.”
But the video has actually been online since 2022.
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The same clip was uploaded to X on 21 September 2022, by an account which captioned it: “In Iran, protesters are overwhelming riot police protesting the death of Mahsa Amini.”
The same video was also featured by media outlets, which reported it as occurring in Amol, Iran, following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been held by the country’s ‘morality police’ for allegedly having a loose headscarf, or hijab.
A UN fact finding mission report said earlier this year that she was “subjected to physical violence that led to her death” and that the Iranian state was therefore responsible. The Iranian government accused the mission of a “glaring lack of independence and impartiality” and authorities there have continually denied she was beaten.
Ms Amini’s death triggered widespread protests that continued in Iran into January and February 2023, and led to the deaths of more than 500 protesters and thousands of arrests, according to Iran human rights organisations.
It has been mandatory for women in Iran to wear a headscarf in public places since 1979, shortly after the Iranian Revolution.
Miscaptioned videos are a common form of misinformation that we see circulating online. We have previously fact checked a number of videos claiming to be of Iranian attacks on Israel, including a computer-generated clip of a WW2 battle and a rocket attack in Syria.
You can read more about how to identify misleading content in our guides to fact checking images and videos.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because the video being shared is not of recent protests in Iran, but has been online since 2022.
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