Netizens call out Western media lies after millions join Raeisi’s funeral

Netizens from around the world have taken to social media platforms, belying a Western media campaign that aims to portray a lackluster popular reaction inside Iran to the recent tragic loss of the country’s President Ebrahim Raeisi and his companions.

Raeisi and his entourage, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, ascended to martyrdom on Sunday after the helicopter carrying them crashed as it was on its way to Tabriz, the capital of Iran’s East Azarbaijan Province. The tragedy was followed by millions-strong funeral processions across Tabriz as well as the north-central city of Qom and the capital Tehran, where the bodies lied in state.

Mainstream Western media outlets, however, sprung into action with a flurry of misreporting and understatement meant to underplay the immense grief that gripped the Iranian nation in the immediate aftermath of the crash.

At the other end of the scale, social media subscribers have been raging against the media campaign, posting images and videos of the heavy-hearted nation’s thronging the streets to bid farewell to their president.

X, among several other platforms, has been abuzz with posts by those trying to relay the reality on the ground.

Many of those debunking the anti-Iranian campaign have included journalists, activists, and others with first-hand experience of attending the countrywide funeral processions.

British independent journalist Richard Medhurst, who had joined the processions, said the Western media campaign was aimed at propagating “lies.”