Amid intensifying protests in Iran, the world’s richest man has weighed in.
On January 4, Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire proprietor of social media platform X, responded to a put up by Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that mentioned “we is not going to give in to the enemy” by suggesting in Farsi that he was delusional.
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Then, on Saturday, Musk’s platform X modified the Iranian flag emoji on the location from the one used for the reason that Islamic revolution in 1979 to the pre-revolution flag that includes a lion and solar.
Some demonstrators inside and outdoors of Iran have waved the pre-1979 flag as a protest towards the present regime.
Musk’s strikes have gained some help from critics of the regime in Tehran. Nonetheless, analysts debate the extent to which such strikes can have an effect on the bottom in Iran.
What’s behind the protests?
Protests in Iran started on December 28 amid hovering inflation within the nation. They’ve since unfold to greater than 100 cities and cities, and at the moment are reportedly going down in each province within the nation.
“The main focus of the protests is on the core of the state and governance of the nation as a result of political, financial, social, cultural, and even environmental insurance policies haven’t labored for [protesters],” Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow on the Middle for Worldwide Coverage, informed Al Jazeera. “Economics, although, was the beginning of it.”
Most of the protesters are calling for an finish to the rule of the nation’s ayatollahs who, together with their Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), took over after the 1979 revolution.
Khamenei, the present supreme chief, has led the nation since 1989. And whereas his rule has survived quite a lot of waves of unrest, together with the mass “Girls, Life, Freedom” protests of 2022, some analysts imagine that the most recent demonstrations are among the many greatest challenges his regime has confronted.
“The Trump administration’s resolution to give up the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and reimpose sanctions – and its failure to achieve a brand new cope with Iran final yr – have crippled the financial system and elevated corruption, benefitting a small sanctions-busting elite,” mentioned Barbara Slavin, a distinguished fellow on the Stimson Middle in Washington and a lecturer in worldwide affairs at George Washington College.
“Add to that the extreme blows inflicted on Iran’s regional allies since October 7, 2023, the Israeli and US strikes final summer time, and it’s onerous to see a manner out [for the regime].”
The Iranian regime has enforced an web blackout within the nation since Thursday, although some movies have nonetheless managed to flow into on-line of masked protesters clashing with safety forces in Iranian cities.
The semiofficial information company Tasnim reported on Sunday that the variety of safety personnel killed has reached 109. Opposition activists say the loss of life toll is larger and consists of dozens of protesters.
Al Jazeera can not independently confirm the figures popping out of Iran.
In the meantime, US President Donald Trump has threatened to intervene if the authorities kill extra protesters.
Enter Elon
Musk, a longtime tech mogul heading US government-supported corporations together with Tesla and SpaceX, left a job with the Trump administration, the place he led the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), in late Might.
Musk’s work with DOGE was extensively criticised, although his buy of social media platform X and vocal help for racist insurance policies have additionally attracted widespread condemnation in recent times.
Immediately, Musk is extra targeted on his personal companies, although he nonetheless wades into politics now and again, significantly to push right-wing conspiracy theories about “white genocide” and immigration.
As for Iran, in the course of the 2022 “Girls, Life, Freedom” protests and once more in 2025’s 12-Day Conflict – which killed greater than 610 folks in Iran and 28 in Israel – Musk supplied web entry to folks contained in the nation by way of his satellite tv for pc service Starlink.
Iran has reportedly jammed Starlink indicators in the course of the newest protests.
“The state makes use of web disruption and shutdown to forestall extra mobilisation of protesters and communication between protest teams and in addition to forestall information of it spreading,” Mortazavi mentioned.
“It nonetheless occurs with a delay when the web comes again on, however what it does is hamper mobilisation and slows down the method of the protests. That’s the primary aim of a comms shutdown.”
That is the place Starlink might be significantly helpful. However analysts say Musk responding to Khamenei’s put up and altering the flag on X usually are not possible pushed by ideology.
“I doubt he cares about Iran per se,” mentioned Slavin. “However he desires to gin up extra visitors for X, and that is one option to do it.”
How helpful are Musk’s newest interventions?
The change of Iran’s flag on X got here amid the web blackout, so many protesters on the bottom had been possible unable to see it. Some Iranian officers, nonetheless, had been briefly considered by these outdoors the nation with the pre-Islamic Republic flags of their account profiles.
“It’s a digital model of conquering a constructing and knocking down the outdated flag, and attempting to place a brand new flag, that was primarily the symbolising they had been going for,” historian Reza H Akbari, who can also be an analyst on Iran on the Institute for Conflict and Peace Reporting, informed Al Jazeera.
“The ability of a majority of these strikes are fairly readily contested in mid- and long-term results,” mentioned Akbari. “Nevertheless it might present momentary pleasure [for protesters on the ground if they can see it] although it’s very onerous to gauge the quantity of standard help.”
Slavin informed Al Jazeera that “what is going on outdoors Iran shouldn’t be that related” to what’s going down contained in the nation.
“The true wrestle for freedom is amongst Iranians remains to be in Iran, not the diaspora or others within the subject,” she mentioned.
“They will amplify developments inside Iran and specific help for human rights, however we can not decide the end result of the wrestle.”
A ‘contentious’ flag
In the meantime, Akbari says the pre-1979 flag “has all the time been contentious, primarily as a logo for opposition each contained in the nation and overseas”.
He added that whereas the flag might imply various things to completely different critics of the present Iranian authorities, it’s usually related to “the opposition that identifies as monarchist or desires the return of the shah”, who was deposed in 1979.
Throughout latest protests, the ousted shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, referred to as on demonstrators to take to the streets and occupy Iranian cities.
Some protesters, together with these outdoors Iran, have referred to as for a return to rule by the shah, regardless of his questionable reputation. Akbari mentioned that Pahlavi himself has supplied to behave as a transitional chief however shouldn’t be trying to transfer completely to Iran to rule the nation.
Analysts agree that Pahlavi wouldn’t be the person to steer the nation ahead, ought to Iran’s Islamic Republic fall after 47 years in energy.
“Immediately, there are various respectable and succesful folks in Iran who might change these in energy. Sadly, most of them are in jail,” Slavin mentioned.
“The son of the shah, in the meantime, lives comfortably in a mansion in Potomac [in the US state of Maryland]. It’s onerous to see what he presents in the best way of sensible change.”
