When Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei released a video address to the nation last week, he appeared somber, and he kept checking his notes.
In the midst of an environmental crisis and domestic pressures, including chronic shortages of water, gasoline, bread, and gas, Khamenei urged ordinary Iranians to adopt a kind of national frugality.
“Everyone should avoid waste in water, bread, gas, gasoline, and public provisions,” he said. “One of the most important dangers and harms to the country is waste.”
Within minutes, the replies beneath the video on X/Twitter were filled with praise for the supreme leader. But there was not the usual mixture of support, frustration, ridicule, or fatigue that often greets posts from senior regime figures. Instead, a stream of polished comments appeared almost simultaneously.
“Let’s use gas properly; it’s essential for winter.”
“Let’s make proper use of everything we have.”
“Let’s all save together, and the country will become stronger.”
“The leader is right; wastefulness is dangerous.”
“Don’t be wasteful; you benefit yourself, and people benefit too.”
“Don’t waste public resources.”
“Let’s not waste gas in vain.”
“Let’s use gas and electricity properly.”
“Our country progresses better with thriftiness.”
The language varied from reply to reply, but the sentiment was absolutely identical, and the speed with which the replies appeared seemed coordinated. It was more akin to a chorus responding to the conductor than the spontaneous outpouring of belief and love that it was intended to seem like.
For many Iranians, especially those who have benefited from the regime or have ties to its institutions, genuine loyalty to the Islamic Republic is real. There are those who believe in the Islamic Republic of Iran, so one should not automatically dismiss any social-media praise for Khamenei and his ilk.
The story becomes interesting, however, only when you begin to look at who these “ordinary” users actually are.
A closer examination by The Jerusalem Post of dozens of X accounts replying to Khamenei’s speech revealed a set of numerous common patterns.
Many of the profiles were created well over a decade ago, generally from 2010-2013, but then remained largely inactive for long stretches of time, with zero interactions.
Their follower counts are minimal, usually in single figures. Their biographies often place them in cities such as Mashhad or Qom, and they claim to be commenting from inside Iran.
But the platform’s own metadata, including the new geolocation feature, which shows where an account was originally created, points overwhelmingly to the United States.
This follows just days after X, under the stewardship of Elon Musk, unveiled a new geolocation feature that reveals the application store’s country registry and the location of social media accounts.
The new feature allowed social media watchers to uncover dozens of accounts with a mismatch between their claimed identities and their actual locations. A myriad of high-following, anti-Israel, nameless accounts have now been revealed to be based in Turkey or Pakistan.
It also highlighted the questionable origins of anonymous news accounts that have gained popularity in disseminating anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian, and pro-Iranian axis content.
The accounts resemble what researchers call “sleeper stock accounts.” These are older, dormant profiles created long ago, often in foreign countries, which are later revived and repurposed.
Because they were established during an era when verification systems on social media were looser, they are able to slip through the cracks and appear with a type of algorithmic legitimacy. To automated moderation tools, a 12-year-old account created in Florida appears far safer than a brand-new Persian-named profile posting the Islamic Republic’s ideological messages.
Once rebranded with a new username, possibly a borrowed profile image, and a new Iranian location, these accounts return to life in the mainstream undetected.
THIS MAKES such accounts perfect tools for swamping social media with pro-regime content. Why is that important?
A comment on X does not change the widespread reputation of a government or affect national policy. But when activated, these accounts can flood the replies beneath an official message with expressions of unity and gratitude, which in turn creates the illusion of support and a cohesive public front.
There is a certain irony in using Western platforms and freedoms against Western interests.
It is another sign of the growing consternation in the Islamic Republic of internal dissatisfaction. Protests are growing larger day by day as the situation deteriorates, and the regime views these efforts on social media as a way to help turn the tide of public opinion.
This reflects their fear of internal uprising and the fall of the regime. That’s why they invest so much effort.
The pattern seen in the comments beneath Khamenei’s waste-prevention video, and the sudden surge of long-dormant “US-born” accounts, all writing in similar tones or language within minutes of one another, seems to fit the bill.
Not the first time Iran has used fake social media accounts to rally anti-Israel hate
The Islamic Republic is no stranger to using bots, fake social media accounts, or “sleeper” accounts like these to promote its messaging.
In 2018, X (Twitter at the time) suspended hundreds of Iranian-linked accounts that posed as foreign journalists and American citizens. Cybersecurity researchers said the operation was designed to push regime messaging through disguised channels.
That same year, further analysis by FireEye, an intelligence security company, prompted removals on Facebook and YouTube.
The scale of these networks became clearer after June’s 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel. A detailed report published by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry in July, just days after the war ended, described how Iranian cyber teams had mobilized extensive cells of fake accounts in an attempt to shape the wartime narrative in both Persian and English.
Analysts found that for some topics, bots had accounted for as much as 60% of all posts. Many of those messages promoted the idea that Israel was attacking the Iranian nation, rather than the regime, in an attempt to get the population to “rally around the flag” and unite behind Khamenei.
Although the initiative behind Khamenei’s waste-speech replies may not be on the same scale or level as those in June, the mechanics appear exceedingly similar.
Old accounts created in the US have been refreshed and redeployed to imitate ordinary Iranians voicing support for their supreme leader. The replies use the same vocabulary and tone, as if they were from a script, and they aim to create the illusion of national harmony. All of this can be done without even having real people support you.
None of this proves who is behind the accounts, nor does it definitively link them to a particular Iranian institution.
But the pattern is difficult to dismiss, and the signs are hard to ignore.
In the past, regimes such as the Soviet Union would simply invent inflated figures and publish them to show success. Today, digital tools allow modern regimes such as Iran to present a carefully curated version of the national mood, as if it were the people themselves saying it. It is all part of Iran’s battle to sway public perception, both inside and outside of the country.
What initially appears to be a groundswell of national love and support, upon closer inspection, turns out to be something far stranger. If the Islamic Republic finds it necessary to “invent” public accounts and support online to try and sway opinion, it may find, when the time comes, that there are no genuine mortals to defend it.