‘Shock and share’: Iran makes social media a key front in war against America

Sassy comebacks, sarcastic insults and glossy AI-generated videos have all been key tools in Iran’s retaliation against the United States, as social media has become a key front in the more than two-month war. 

The battle playing out online demonstrates the Islamic Republic’s investment in communications and technology as a key part of its arsenal. The purpose, according to some experts, is to flood the information space with content that undermines the U.S. position and President Trump. 

“Sharp power is kind of purposely trying to destabilize your opponent by making them look bad, or by using their own systems against them,” said Priya Doshi, the Hurst senior professorial lecturer in strategic communications with American University.

The videos and pithy comments also serve as a response to the Trump administration’s social media campaign employed at the beginning of the war. The campaign used AI-generated videos glorifying attacks against Iran with video game montages and splicing together American war movies and pop culture images. Those videos drew backlash in the U.S. for trivializing the costs of war. 

“This administration has done a lot of unconventional things on social media,” Doshi added. “What the Iranians are doing is, they’re basically taking that and they’re turning it around and aiming it back at the United States.”

The videos and social media “clapbacks” posted on Iranian embassy accounts demonstrate a grasp of American culture and the provocative language popular on the internet. 

Iran’s embassy in Thailand seized on a clip that seemed to show Trump falling asleep at the Resolute Desk during a press availability in the Oval Office. Iran’s embassy in Ghana then published a Lego version of the clip. 

“He must be dreaming that he defeated Iran. Leave him sleeping,” the account posted. 

After Trump announced a unilateral extension of the ceasefire, Iran’s embassy in Hyderabad, India, posted an AI-generated video depicting a frustrated Trump pretending to negotiate with an absent Iranian delegation to the tune of light-hearted carnival music.  

“It goes from shock and awe, to shock and share,” said Joseph Bodnar, senior research manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Bodnar, along with his colleague, analyst Krysia Sikora, is tracking a “dramatic increase” in online engagement with Iran’s diplomatic accounts. 

In the first 50 days of the war, posts from official Iranian government accounts have collectively gained 900 million views and 22 million likes, according to........

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