TEHRAN, IRAN – JANUARY 8: A fire is set during a rally by protesters in Tehran, Iran, on January 8, 2026. Demonstrations have been ongoing since December, sparked by soaring inflation and the collapse of the rial, and have expanded into broader demands for political change. (Photo provided by: Anonymous/Getty Images)
Getty Images
A viral video circulating on X appears to show Iranian protesters renaming a street “Trump Street.” The video is completely fake and represents a new trend in Iranian protests as misinformation fills a news vacuum made worse by internet blackouts.
Conservative influencer spreads fake AI video of Iran protests
Protests in Iran have evolved from demands for economic reform to direct challenges to the clerical regime’s rule. In response, the government reportedly killed thousands of protesters and imposed a communications blackout. Due to the Iranian government’s internet blackout, some malicious actors are filling the news void with AI-generated misinformation.
A popular video discovered and debunked by NewsGuard’s Iran reporting shows a man wiping down a sign that reads “Trump Street” in English with Persian characters added. Below the text you will see a globe symbol with only the letter “S” on it. After cleaning the sign, the man salutes the chorus of crowds. This video has been viewed over 94,000 times.
NewsGuard used IdentifyAI to analyze the footage and confirm it was fake. Even without AI analysis, it’s clearly a fabrication. According to Google Translate, the Persian word is meaningless. The mysterious letter “S” is also a gift. The most obvious one is the ghostly white watermark at the bottom of the image that explicitly says “AI generated.”
This video from an Iranian protest posted on X, depicting a demonstrator holding up a “Trump Street” sign, is completely fake.
X.com
The watermark didn’t stop the poster, Mila Joy, who encourages people to follow breaking news on her profile and describes herself as “politically conservative” and “MAGA”, from sharing the video with her 479,200 followers.
Iran protests: hotbed of fake videos
The video was credited to the TikTok account @pupio_official, which also shared a video showing three street signs with the name “Trump” written on them, racking up 12,100 views in four days. This is also fake and clearly labeled as “AI-generated content.”
The “Trump Street” clip is not an isolated incident. NewsGuard announced the discovery of seven AI-generated videos produced by pro-government and anti-government sources that have been viewed 3.5 million times. One widely circulated video shows female protesters destroying a Basij van. The caption posted by the X account @alkatab83 reads: “Iranian free women are smashing the wheels of the Basij militia. By God, these women are braver and more honorable than the militias loyal to Khamenei’s regime.” It was viewed 719,600 times in one day.
Be wary of videos originating from Iran, especially those that clearly display an “AI-generated” watermark.
