Recently, a video went viral on social media showing people lighting up their cellphone flashlights and taking to the streets to protest. Users shared the video and claimed it showed Iranian protesters. “Protest against Islamic law in Iran by Iranian Muslims,” the user wrote.
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However, upon further investigation, we discovered that this viral video was generated by AI. Here’s a fact check.
fact check
We began our investigation by taking screenshots from viral videos and performing a reverse image search. This found multiple posts with viral videos.
One such Instagram post has the caption: “Great courage and bravery!”
✨ If you would like to learn more about this post, including the use of AI in the scene, please read the artist’s statement below.
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Repost from @elnaz555
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A digital homage to the current protests in Iran.
A video recently surfaced showing large crowds turning on their cellphone lights on dark streets in Tehran after the government turned off street lights to hide phone numbers. At that moment, I wanted to recreate that scene through art using AI.
This work is not a substitute for reality. This is a way to reflect that and help more people understand what’s going on, especially since the entire country has been in a digital blackout for the last four days.
The original video can be found by searching “Iran Protests 2026” on IG.
instagram link
Taking this as a clue, I used a related keyword search to find the Instagram handle of the creator of this video.
We discovered a viral video on this Instagram handle that was uploaded on January 11, 2026.
The post’s caption reads, “We’re keeping an eye on Iran.
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A digital homage to the current protests in Iran.
A video recently surfaced showing large crowds turning on their cellphone lights on dark streets in Tehran after the government turned off street lights to hide phone numbers. At that moment, I wanted to recreate that scene through art using AI.
This work is not a substitute for reality. This is a way to reflect that and help more people understand what’s going on, especially since the entire country has been in a digital blackout for the last four days.
The original video can be found by searching “Iran Protests 2026” on IG.
Furthermore, the AI-Detector tool suggested that the video was generated using AI.
This makes it clear that the viral video was generated by AI.
conclusion
Our research shows that this claim is misleading. A viral video of an Iranian protester using a cellphone flashlight is not real footage. Videos are created using AI. According to the creator, the video was inspired by recent events in Iran.
title:The viral “Look at Iran” video was generated by AI.
Fact Checker: Debanjana Baishya
result: misleading
