Wikipedia Editors Are Helping Iran Rewrite History
“The Islamic Republic isn’t just killing protesters. It’s erasing the evidence that they existed at all.” (Illustration by The Free Press; image via Getty)
An investigation into Wikipedia editing patterns reveals a yearslong, coordinated campaign to sanitize the Islamic Republic’s human rights record.
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While Iranian security forces have killed up to 20,000 protesters since December 2025—with the real toll feared much higher—another battle is being fought in the digital realm. As internet blackouts prevent Iranians from documenting their own repression, pro-regime editors on Wikipedia are working to control how these events, and Iranian history more broadly, are recorded and read by the rest of the world.
It’s a deliberate dual strategy: Kinetic violence silences dissent at home, and digital propaganda shapes the narrative abroad. Together, they form what Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei calls “vindication jihad”—a soft war in the information space designed to rewrite reality itself.
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