Pro-regime Iranians flocked to see the body of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as it lay in state in early July. Khamenei was killed on February 28 during the first days of a bombing campaign on Iran carried out by the United States and Israel. The authorities said that several million Iranians attended the funeral, though these numbers can’t be independently verified. While many people did attend the funeral, as shown by photos taken by international media outlets, fake images of the event have also been circulating online. A massive crowd at the Grand Mosalla Mosque? A social media user who often expresses support for the Iranian regime posted a video on July 4 showing an enormous crowd on the grounds of the Grande Mosalla Mosque, an important religious and political site in Tehran, where the supreme leader’s body lay in state. The video garnered more than 370,000 views on X.
This video of Tehran’s Grand Mosalla mosque, posted online on July 4, 2026, was generated by AI. Source: X
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While the building in the video does in some ways resemble the Grand Mosalla Mosque, with its rows of arcades along the sides and a cupola flanked by two minarets, it also has several key differences – the first clue that the image was generated by AI. The first key difference is that, in the video shared online, the Grand Mosalla’s dome looks beige-coloured, while it is actually blue in a video of the site filmed by FRANCE 24 on July 4. Moreover, there is a large arch located between the building’s two minarets, framing the dome. In the video posted online, this structure is missing.
