Mass protests in Iran began on December 28, 2025, over the country’s deepening economic crisis, soaring inflation and currency collapse, quickly spreading nationwide with broader anti-regime demands.
Security forces responded with lethal force, mass arrests and an internet blackout. Thousands have been killed and detained amid one of the deadliest crackdowns in years, drawing international concern and widespread criticism.
In the above context, a video montage of several clips is being widely shared on social media in which people are seen protesting on the street. In the first video many people are seen on the street with lights flashing. The second image shows people raising their hand with phones in it.
The video is being shared on social media with a caption suggesting that it shows a protest in Iran.
A social media user shared the video with a caption that reads, “All eyes on Iran. The Government shut down the streetlights to hide the massive scale of protesters but everyone used their phone lights to show they were out there. #iran #iranprotests”
SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The viral video is AI-generated.
Clip 1
We can see several discrepancies in the video. For example, we can see the tree moving from one place to another. The lights are flickering out of proportion, and the movement of the smoke is not even.
These discrepancies hint that the viral video can be AI-generated. So, we analyzed it using AI-detection tools (Decopy.ai and Hive moderation). While Decopy shows that the video is 61% AI-generated, Hive moderation shows it to be 96.8%.
Clip 2
On closely observing the second clip, we can see that the light dispersion and haze effects look slightly overly uniform and too perfectly balanced. Moreover, the hand shapes and positions are repetitive, and some phone screens show unnatural blur or pixelation effects, which is common in AI-created crowd scenes. These visual issues point to the viral video being AI-generated.
We also ran this clip through an AI-detection tool, which confirmed that the video is AI-generated. So, we analyzed it using AI-detection tools (Decopy.ai and NoteGPT). While Decopy shows that the video is 90% AI-generated, NoteGPT shows it to be 99.12%.
Hence, we can ascertain that the viral claim is false.
