How Iranian diplomats turned embassy accounts into viral meme machines

Advertising How Iranian diplomats turned embassy accounts into viral meme machines Middle East

Memes, humour, and trolling of American politicians: This is how a handful of Iranian embassies have become superstars on “X”, attracting millions of views. But how did the old-fashioned and largely ignored accounts of Iran’s diplomats in South Africa, Thailand, and the United Kingdom suddenly turn into Gen Z-style viral feeds, with millions of views?

Issued on: 29/04/2026 - 18:04

4 min Reading time Share By: The FRANCE 24 Observers

When US and Israeli jets and missiles started attacking Iran on February 28, another battle – a propaganda war – opened up on social media. Official US accounts, including those of the Pentagon and the White House, started publishing clips of their attacks on Iran, mixed with footage from Hollywood films, video games, and cartoons.

Iran’s regime launched a counterattack online. Mocking and trolling posts from Iranian embassy accounts have targeted the US administration, notably President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the broader war narrative promoted by the US government.

While the US administration’s combative messaging on the war with Iran has largely failed to gain traction online, the Iranian embassy's memes and humorous content have gone viral, sometimes attracting millions of views and reposts.

The embassy accounts were, until recently, little-followed feeds recycling statements from Iran’s foreign minister, other state officials, and routine embassy activity. In early March, they started reposting humorous tweets by other X users mocking the US’s war on Iran, and by the end of the month, they were posting humorous tweets of their own.

On March 23, Iran’s embassy in South Africa posted a photo of a toy steering wheel after Trump suggested the US could share control of the Strait of Hormuz with Iran. The post had 3.9 million views on X. On April 6, after Trump posted a message appearing to extend a deadline for Iran to open the strait before “Tuesday, 8:00 am Eastern Time”, the Iranian embassy in Zimbabwe posted a message with more than 6 million views, asking him to change it to between 1 and 2 pm.   

Iran’s embassies have posted Internet-famous memes showing close knowledge of global pop culture, as well as references to popular films and series such as Friends and Pirates of the Caribbean, prompting British tabloid the Daily Mail to describe them as “jaw-dropping”.

The war emergency put younger diplomats in charge

Ali Pourtabatabaei, an Iranian journalist with inside knowledge of the Iranian administration, explains how this abrupt shift was decided and how it was implemented:

When the war started, the older generation of Iranian diplomats – who normally run these accounts – realised their point of view had no voice among non-Iranian audiences. So they turned to a younger generation of diplomats who understand social networks. This new generation was more easily granted freedom and authority during wartime to take control of these accounts.

For multiple reasons, this younger generation of Iranian diplomats has been trained more in public diplomacy and communication than in other areas. They are young and, naturally, more familiar with contemporary pop culture. 

Another important point is that this new PR strategy was not applied to all accounts at once. One or two embassies started as a test, and when it proved successful, others followed.

 

And despite what many might suspect, the diplomats behind these accounts are not based in Tehran in the same room; they are all located in their respective countries of assignment.

The combination of a wartime emergency and the very positive reaction they received on social media led to this shift, with permission granted to this younger generation to cross traditional diplomatic PR red lines.

 

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Old clichés and outdated management no longer work

The embassies have also reposted satirical videos portraying Trump as an animated Lego character. The videos are produced by young Iranians, such as a group calling themselves “Explosive Media”. In an interview with the FRANCE 24 Observers, the group’s spokesperson confirmed the shift towards a younger generation:

 

When war breaks out, people become convinced that old clichés and outdated methods can no longer work.

Young people like us have taken charge, and with God's help and the inspiration he provides, we are able to produce work at a global standard across different fields.

I don’t think that, once the war started, a single group or team was suddenly created to take control of all these accounts.

According to a study by the “Institute for Strategic Dialogue”, in the first 50 days of the war, posts from Iran’s embassies and other official accounts collectively gained approximately 900 million views and 22 million likes, around 14 and 30 times more, respectively, than in the same period before the war.

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