{"id":348866,"date":"2026-10-19T21:13:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T20:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=348866"},"modified":"2026-10-19T22:12:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T21:12:06","slug":"when-other-countries-protest-tehran-sees-an-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-a-world\/when-other-countries-protest-tehran-sees-an-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"When Other Countries Protest, Tehran Sees an Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Snippets
Snippets of Iranian state media coverage of protests and unrest in France\u2014 October 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three-minute read<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For Iran\u2019s clerical establishment, unrest abroad is rarely just news. It is material.<\/p>\n

When demonstrations erupt in a Western capital, state media move quickly to enlarge them into evidence of political decay, police brutality or the bankruptcy of democratic government. The contrast with Tehran\u2019s treatment of protests<\/a> at home\u2014where demonstrators are routinely described as rioters, foreign agents or terrorists\u2014is striking enough. But years of investigations into Iranian information operations reveal something more consequential: the regime has repeatedly tried not merely to report divisions abroad, but to enter them disguised as someone else.<\/p>\n

The distinction matters as France faces unrest today.<\/p>\n

Iranian state media have devoted sustained coverage to the French protests, portraying police conduct as proof of European hypocrisy on human rights. Tasnim called the reaction in Strasbourg a \u201cshameless wall of silence\u201d and argued that violence against protesters revealed the real meaning of Europe\u2019s democratic claims.<\/p>\n

Enter the Protest, Wearing Someone Else\u2019s Face<\/h2>\n

On November 5, 2020, Facebook exposed<\/a> and removed an Iran-origin network comprising 12 Facebook accounts, two Pages and 307 Instagram accounts linked to individuals associated with EITRC, a Tehran-based IT company.<\/p>\n

On October 21, 2019, Meta removed<\/a> an Iran-origin network that operated a page called BLMNews, masquerading as a news outlet and posting about Black Lives Matter, race relations and African-American culture alongside. Another enormous network linked by Meta to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Corporation targeted audiences from Africa and Europe to the United States and Britain through hundreds of deceptive pages and accounts.<\/p>\n

\n

An Iran-based influence operation used fabricated Western journalists, #AI<\/a>-assisted editing and deceptive pitches to place geopolitical articles in legitimate online publications, according to an @OpenAI<\/a> investigation that highlights a more sophisticated model of information\u2026<\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 10, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n