The Japan Times - With Legos, trolling and Twain, Iran pushes war narrative on social media

Five weeks into the war against Israel and the United States, Iranian authorities have pulled out all the stops to aggressively promote the Islamic republic's narrative online.

Their efforts on X and other social media outlets are aimed at the outside world, given that X and most of its competitors have been blocked for years inside Iran, only accessible with the use of a VPN to circumvent internal censorship.

Most Iranians have barely had access to the worldwide web at all since the outbreak of the war on February 28, due to what monitor Netblocks terms an "internet blackout" that has now lasted 39 days.

But this does not prevent select "whitelisted" officials from using social media platforms like X as weapons in the propaganda war, even as they remain blocked to ordinary Iranians, in a double standard that has enraged digital rights activists.

Embassies overseas are also getting in on the action, with certain Trump posts sending sometimes-dormant accounts into a frenzy.

When the US leader issued an expletive-laden rant at the Islamic republic threatening consequences if it did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's embassy in Zimbabwe quipped: "We've lost the keys."

- 'Lego-style' animation -

Referring to a previous threat by Trump to send Iran back to the "Stone Ages", the embassy in Thailand added: "Judging by how POTUS swears like a teenager, it seems the US has reached the Stone Age sooner than expected".

Iran's embassy in the UK, meanwhile, shared a quote it attributed to the famed American author Mark Twain: "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

An incident last week that saw a US warplane shot down and its two crew eject over Iran before being rescued by American special forces has also highlighted the foes' competing narratives.

Trump has hailed the operation, and Washington has described it as successful, with no casualties.

But pro-government Iranian news media's English-language accounts on X such as the Tasnim news agency described the operation as "Tabas II", after the Iranian desert location where a 1980 American helicopter bid to rescue hostages being held in the US embassy ended in disaster.

A group called Explosive Media, which describes itself as a "Iranian Lego-style animation team" posted its latest video about the incident showing a Lego Trump with a bandaged hand raging down the phone as the operation purportedly goes wrong, with US rescue aircraft shot down -- something Washington insists did not happen.

- 'Bring it on' -

One of the most active users among top officials has been parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, seen by some analysts as the de facto Iranian number one after the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei on February 28 at the start of the war.

Referring to threats of a ground invasion, the former Revolutionary Guards commander said on April 1: "You come for our home... you're gonna meet the whole family. Locked loaded and standing tall. Bring it on."

The killing of Khamenei did not end his presence on social media, with his accounts on X and Telegram still posting, sometimes several times daily with comments from past speeches.

"Following Jesus Christ -- peace be upon him -- necessarily entails supporting the truth and renouncing anti-truth powers," Khamenei's X account said in Easter message based on comments from 1995.

Meanwhile, according to Netblocks the web "restrictions have left most Iranians isolated from the global network known as the internet, with only a domestic digital service, or intranet, now available".

This means most Iranians are unable to reach international websites and social media, with only homegrown services such as for banking, shopping and ride hailing still accessible.

Khamenei's son and successor Mojtaba has yet to be seen in public since being named supreme leader, but has his own widely-used X and Telegram channels.

Despite posting statements and condolence messages in his name, they have yet to offer and new images or proof of life.

Y.Kato--JT