Network linked to Israel pushes to shape external Iran protest narrative

Transcendent moments in geopolitics that reverberate around the world are no longer just forged in the streets or inside situation rooms. They are increasingly engineered in the digital sphere, where actors, often with a self-serving agenda, compete to control the narrative, define its meaning and decide who speaks for whom.

In recent weeks as protests erupted in Iranian cities, the hashtag #FreeThePersianPeople trended on X. The campaign was accompanied by a flood of posts heralding an imminent “decisive moment” in Iran’s history and presenting themselves as the authentic voice of the Iranian people.

However, an extensive data analysis by Al Jazeera reveals a different picture.

Tracking the sources of this interaction and its dissemination paths uncovers that the digital campaign did not originate organically from within Iran.

Instead, it was spearheaded by external networks – primarily accounts linked to Israel or pro-Israel circles – that played a central role in manufacturing momentum and steering the discourse toward specific geopolitical goals.

‘Abnormal’ patterns of circulation

The data associated with the campaign reveals a striking anomaly in how the hashtag spread, indicative of artificial amplification.

Al Jazeera’s analysis found that 94 percent of the 4,370 posts analysed were retweets compared with a negligible percentage of original content.

More significantly, the number of accounts producing original content did not exceed 170 users, yet the campaign reached more than 18 million users.

This massive gap between the limited number of sources and the vast reach is a hallmark of coordinated influence operations, often referred to as “astroturfing”, in which pre-packaged messages are amplified to create the illusion of widespread public consensus.

A single narrative, multiple formats

A review of the content shows the hashtag was not merely an expression of social or economic grievances. Instead, it carried a rigid political framework designed to reframe and actually pour on the unrest.

The discourse portrayed developments inside Iran as a “moment of collapse” and relied on sharp binaries: “The People vs. The Regime”, “Freedom vs. Political Islam” and “Iran vs. The Islamic Republic”.

The campaign heavily promoted Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah, as the sole political alternative. Pahlavi himself engaged with the campaign, a move that was immediately amplified by Israeli accounts describing him as the “face of the alternative Iran”. But he is not thought of in those terms by a majority of Iranians, many of whom have memories of his father’s abuses and how the CIA restored him to power in 1953 in a United States-United Kingdom-orchestrated coup.

Translation: I am sharing my first call with you today and invite you to start chanting slogans this Thursday and Friday, 18th and 19th of Dey, simultaneously at 8 PM, all of you whether in the streets or even from your own homes. Based on the feedback from this action, I will announce the next calls to you.

Direct Israeli involvement

The campaign was not limited to anonymous activists. It also involved direct participation from current and former Israeli officials during the campaign’s peak.

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a tweet in Persian addressed to the Iranian people, calling for the “fall of the dictator” and expressing support for the protests.

Translation: The people of Iran deserve a free life, liberated from the killer dictator, Khamenei. We stand with you!

Similarly, tweets by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett were widely circulated within the hashtag’s network, repurposed to fit the “liberation” narrative.

Turning protests into an ideological war

One of the campaign’s most prominent features was its attempt to reframe the protests as a conflict against religion rather than against economic mismanagement and political repression.

Posts describing the Iranian government as an “oppressive Islamist regime” circulated alongside narratives portraying the “Persian people” as victims of Islam. This attempt to distinguish between “Persians” and “Muslims” appeared aimed at isolating the regime from Iranian society and framing the unrest as a civilizational clash.

Israeli activists, including Eyal Yakoby and Hillel Neuer, also pushed content accusing the Iranian authorities of excessive violence while attacking what they termed the “silence of international media”.

Calls for foreign intervention

The discourse quickly evolved from solidarity to explicit calls for foreign military intervention. And this narrative was pushed by US President Donald Trump, who bombed Iran’s nuclear sites as part of Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June.

The network amplified statements attributed to Trump regarding Washington’s readiness to intervene. Pahlavi publicly welcomed these statements, framing them as support for “change”.

Simultaneously, members of the US Congress, including Representative Pat Fallon, a member of Trump’s Republican Party, further amplified these sentiments while dozens of accounts within the network directed tweets at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging direct Israeli intervention.

The ‘puppet masters’ behind the network

Al Jazeera’s network analysis identified specific “central nodes”, or accounts that played a pivotal role in amplifying the hashtag.

• “Rhythm of X”: This account emerged as a central hub for interaction. Created in 2024, it has changed its handle five times. Its content focuses almost exclusively on supporting Israel, promoting the Iranian monarchy and calling for US action against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

• “Nioh Berg”: This verified account created in 2017 (which has also changed its name five times) identifies its user as a “Jewish Iranian activist”. It presents her as a key voice in the movement and says she is wanted by Iranian authorities.

• “Israel War Room”: The analysis shows a strong overlap between the “Nioh Berg” network and the “Israel War Room” account, which regularly disseminates security and political content aligned with Israeli state narratives.

Manufacturing a crisis

The investigation concludes that the #FreeThePersianPeople campaign was not a spontaneous digital expression of internal Iranian anger.

Source: Aljazeera