Battles over truth rage online amid Iran's Internet blackout

The internet blackout in Iran has stanched the flow of reliable information about the political unrest roiling the country.

- Steven Lee Myers, Tiffany Hsu and Stuart A. Thompson

Filling the void has been a deluge of propaganda, disinformation and influence campaigns from countries or parties trying to shape the outcome of the conflict.

Inauthentic accounts online also known as bots have spread false and conflicting narratives on X, Instagram and other social media platforms in recent days, according to several experts in disinformation flow and the Iranian information ecosystem. The bots have shared misleading or artificially generated photographs and videos, further muddling what is actually happening on the ground.

Much of the content disseminated by inauthentic accounts has sought to bolster Iran's opposition, including by championing Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah of Iran toppled by the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Others have echoed Iran's claims that the unrest was orchestrated by its enemies, especially the United States and Israel - a view that allies like Russia have amplified in their own state media.

Researchers have identified multiple coordinated information campaigns online, though they cannot always identify those behind them with certainty.

Much of the content of the campaigns seems intended to sway the global court of public opinion, though it also reflects divisions among Iranians at home. The impact, though, has been more disorientation in an already murky situation.

Iran has long been a contested information battleground, with the Islamic government pitted against its critics in a perpetual struggle for public opinion. The 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel last year punctuated by air and missile strikes by the United States - ushered in a new era of information warfare. The latest protests have reignited the discord.