A website that monitors Wikipedia content wrote that at the same time that thousands of Iranian citizens have been killed by security forces in recent days, another battle is underway in the digital sphere, with the Iranian regime trying to turn Wikipedia into part of its propaganda machinery.
The website “NPOV,” a platform focused on monitoring neutrality on Wikipedia, noted that at the same time as protesters are being killed in Iran, “pro-regime editors are working to control how these events, and Iranian history more broadly, are recorded on Wikipedia.” It wrote: “The dual strategy is deliberate. Kinetic violence silences dissent at home. Digital propaganda shapes the narrative abroad.”
According to the report, this dual strategy constitutes what Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran’s regime, calls “vindication jihad”; a soft war in the information sphere designed to rewrite reality itself.
Iranian Authorities Sentence Soldier to Death for Refusing to Fire at Protesters
According to the website, an investigation into Wikipedia editing patterns indicates a coordinated, multi-year campaign to erase the Iranian regime’s human rights record.
According to this report, based on last year’s investigation by The Times newspaper, entries have been systematically edited to downplay the crimes of the Iranian regime. Key details about the mass executions of 1988 were removed, including that the victims included women and children who were killed extrajudicially and that current senior officials were involved in the so-called death commissions. In the summer of 1988, the Iranian regime executed 30,000 political prisoners, mainly members and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), over the course of a few weeks.
According to the report, information related to the life sentence of Hamid Nouri, an Iranian regime judicial official, handed down about four years ago in Sweden on charges of “war crimes” and “murder,” has disappeared. In addition, references to the expulsion of two Iranian regime diplomats from Albania about six years ago, due to their involvement in a bombing plot against the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, have been removed.
According to NPOV, this issue matters beyond Wikipedia; when artificial intelligence systems are asked about Iranian leaders or events, they often rely on these manipulated articles. This propaganda does not remain confined but flows into a broader information stream that millions of people depend on daily.
Iran, Tehran, January 8, 2026
Iranian Regime Security Forces Firing at Protesters in Tehranpars#IranProtests #IranRevolution #FreeIran2026 #No2ShahNo2Mullahs pic.twitter.com/b6guwFqrQe— Iran Focus (@Iran_Focus) January 20, 2026
The website, referring to “Memory Manipulation” through “abrasive deletion” on Wikipedia, wrote that small edits are made over time that gradually eliminate entire sections.
The report points, among other things, to the removal of entire paragraphs from the page on nationwide protests in Iran by “pro-regime editors,” including a prolific editor with the username “Mhhossein.”
The report refers to two active pro-regime editors on Wikipedia:
“Two editors exemplify the scope of pro-Iran editing: Mhhossein and Iskandar323.”
Mhhossein functions as a historical gatekeeper. He has edited the Ali Khamenei page 217 times—more than any other user—removing information about Iran’s nuclear program and protests.
“Mhhossein functions as a historical gatekeeper. He has edited the Ali Khamenei page 217 times—more than any other user—removing information about Iran’s nuclear program and protests.”
NPOV added: He is the top contributor on Assassinations of Iranian Nuclear Scientists, 1981 Iranian PM’s office bombing, and Ali Khamenei’s fatwa against nuclear weapons.
Accordingly, Mhhossein has approved state media sources regarding nationwide protests in Iran and removed information from opposition media outlets.
Iskandar323 operates as a battleground editor focused on active conflicts alongside his edits on past events, editing on the 1988 mass executions as recently as 18 January.
Regarding the activities of Iskandar323, including the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners, the website wrote: “Iskandar323 operates as a battleground editor focused on active conflicts alongside his edits on past events, editing on the 1988 mass executions as recently as 18 January.”
The Iranian regime’s pressure campaign on Wikipedia
“NPOV” wrote about the nationwide protests of January 2026 that since the start of the protests, “Since protests erupted in December 2025, Wikipedia’s 2025–2026 Iranian Protests page has drawn from over 400 sources.”
Regarding the Iranian regime’s “authoritarian information warfare” surrounding the nationwide protests, “NPOV” wrote:
“There’s violence in the streets to silence dissent in real time. Then come the internet blackouts, preventing real-time documentation and cutting off the flow of evidence to the outside world. And once the immediate crisis fades from international attention—once bodies are quietly buried and the news cycle moves on—the propaganda operation moves in to systematically rewrite what happened.”
The website emphasized that the Iranian regime not only kills protesters but also erases the evidence that shows they ever existed.
According to the report, Wikipedia’s open-editing model, an encyclopedia trusted by millions of people, has been turned into part of the regime’s propaganda apparatus.
