Iranian Fact-Checker Faces Dual Challenges of National Uprisings and War

In the midst of a media blackout, Iranian fact-checker continues mission from exile

Farhad Souzanchi hasn’t spoken directly to his mother since war erupted in Iran. Instead, he relies on a journalist friend with internet access inside the country to relay messages and check on her wellbeing.

“I tell him, can you tell my mom this? Or can you check in on her? And then he’ll talk to her,” explains Souzanchi, who runs the fact-checking organization Factnameh from Toronto, where he lives in exile.

The Iranian government has implemented a comprehensive internet shutdown, effectively isolating citizens from outside information sources and creating what Souzanchi describes as a “North Korea-esque situation.” With state media now one of the only available information channels, his team’s work has become increasingly vital.

Souzanchi and his 10-person team work around the clock in shifts, spending up to 14 hours daily debunking misinformation about the conflict and preceding civil unrest. “It’s been nonstop crisis mode for us since the protests began late December,” he says.

Operating from outside Iran presents unique challenges but has also prepared Factnameh for this moment. “We’re only using open-source content to verify everything, because we’re not on the ground,” Souzanchi explains. This approach has become essential as traditional access to information has been severed.

In anticipation of the conflict, Factnameh expanded its team to include specialized expertise. “We added a ballistic expert whose expertise is in weapons, bombs, everything — and a military OSINT expert,” he notes, referring to open-source intelligence specialists who analyze publicly available data like satellite images and videos.

The internet blackout has forced Souzanchi to find creative workarounds. “We don’t have access from outside to most of the news agencies, and, obviously, a lot of the government websites and databases,” he says. “We’ve found ways — sometimes asking users inside, can you send us screenshots of this government website?”

This situation reflects years of infrastructure development by Iranian authorities. “Iran has been investing in its national information network for at least 15 years, and now they’ve gotten to a place where they can actually shut down the internet for a long time and still function domestically,” Souzanchi explains. “Banks are working. Government centers are working and in contact with each other. But it’s closed from outside.”

Complicating matters further is the proliferation of AI-generated imagery from both sides of the conflict. “The last time we saw this many AI images claiming to be actual footage was during the 12-day war in June,” Souzanchi notes. “A lot of accounts close to the Iranian regime — even media outlets — were using AI-generated content to paint this image that it’s an even war.”

He points to specific examples: “PressTV, which is the English arm of Iranian television, posted these. Tehran Times, the English-language newspaper, posted a few on their Twitter and never took them down. They’re still doing it.”

The spread of AI-generated content has created a generational divide in how information is processed. “The older generations tend to believe more of it. The younger generations have sort of trained their eyes to detect AI, most of them,” Souzanchi observes. “During these times, when emotions are high, people tend to be less cautious — especially when something makes them angry.”

One recent incident highlighting these challenges was the Minab school airstrike, which Factnameh has been investigating. Early misinformation claimed the school wasn’t in Iran but Pakistan, which the team quickly debunked through visual evidence including visible flags.

“We were criticized for mentioning — or giving the context — that the school is in the vicinity of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy base,” Souzanchi recalls. “People said we were whitewashing, or making excuses — like we were saying those children didn’t matter because they were near a military base. That’s totally not what we said. Omitting it would be misleading.”

Factnameh has developed sophisticated investigation capabilities, utilizing satellite imagery, marine traffic monitoring, and military expertise to verify information. This technical approach has become so specialized that Souzanchi admits that during team meetings, “I couldn’t understand half the conversation. I told him, it feels like listening to doctors discussing medical terms.”

As for the future, Souzanchi remains cautious about predictions. “Iran is famous for not being predictable,” he says, explaining that the regime’s structure allows it to continue functioning even after significant leadership losses. “Different factions make their own decisions for different scenarios. They took out Khamenei and the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the defense minister and several other high-ranking military officials, and they’re still shooting missiles.”

Throughout all this, personal safety remains a constant concern. Souzanchi works under a pseudonym, and many of his friends don’t know his actual occupation. “A lot of our security concerns are because of our families. The Iranian regime has the precedent of harassing family members of journalists,” he explains, highlighting the very real dangers that make his work not just professionally challenging, but personally risky.