The most recent wave of protests in Iran began on December 28, 2025, when demonstrations over a deepening economic crisis and soaring prices erupted in Tehran’s bazaar and quickly spread nationwide. The unrest has continued into January 2026, with large-scale clashes, internet blackouts and an ongoing crackdown.
In the above context, a video is being widely shared on social media in which people are seen setting fire to vehicles parked on a street.
The video is shared with a caption suggesting that it is from Iran, where protesters are vandalising the vehicles.
A social media user shared the video with a caption that reads, “1.5-1.85 million Iranians are in the streets fighting tonight… At this stage the revolution has spread to:
- 512 locations
- 180 cities
- 31 provinces (All provinces). I urge everyone, especially those with influence to not call this “protests”. Does this look like protests to you? This is a revolution…”
SouthCheck found that the claim is false. The viral video shows a protest in Greece.
On a Google reverse image search, we found that the same video was shared by an Instagram user on November 2, 2025. While the video did not have any caption, it is older than the events taking place in Iran, which suggests that it was not of the protest in Iran.
We further found another YouTube video shared by a Greek YouTube channel, SKAI.gr, on November 2, 2025. In the video, at around 56 seconds, we can see the same visual as the viral video. In the video, we can see the same red car in front of the black car, as in the viral video.
Using this information, we searched with relevant keywords and found that the incident was reported by Huffington Post on November 2, 2025.
According to the report, after an LΕE concert in Thessaloniki, about 100 people attacked police near the Turkish consulate with over 60 Molotov cocktails, sparking fires, and damaging cars. Riot police used chemicals and stun grenades; 18 were detained and one arrested, unrelated to the clashes.
