February 4, 2026
Tehran burns, so do the comments
In Tehran
In Tehran: Streets on fire, internet off — and a comment war over blame and betrayal
TLDR: An eyewitness recounts Tehran protests under an internet blackout, with gunfire and street battles. The comments explode into a blame war: some denounce Iran’s rulers and Western inaction, others fault sanctions or quote-misuse—showing how split the world is on who’s guilty and who should act.
A raw, first‑person diary from Tehran shows streets ablaze, phones dead, and young protesters facing tear gas and live fire after a call to rally over Iran’s economic crisis. But the real inferno is in the comments, where users argue over who’s to blame and who’s looking away. One camp points to the regime’s escalating labels — “rioters” yesterday, “terrorists” today — calling it a familiar playbook for crushing dissent. Another group unleashes at the West: why negotiate with Tehran while people bleed? One commenter even drops a Hitler analogy, sending the thread into meltdown.
Cue the “context police.” A viral line — “They don’t kill people. Our own government does” — sparks accusations of quote‑chopping, with users reposting the full passage and accusing opponents of hype. Meanwhile, geopolitical hot takes fly: sanctions have “crippled” the economy, Israel and the U.S. are meddling, and outside pressure is fueling the very anger seen on the streets. Others clap back that this is whataboutism when the story is bullets, batons, and blackout. Dark humor sneaks in: memes about “label speedruns” and “quote‑mining Olympics,” plus riffs about the internet dying faster than official denials. If the city sounded like a war zone, the thread reads like one — and nobody’s backing down.
Key Points
- •On 8 January, Reza Pahlavi called for protests at 8 p.m. amid economic crisis and recent bazaar strikes.
- •Large crowds gathered in Tehran, including in affluent northern areas like Qeytarieh Square, with chants such as “Long live the Shah” and “Death to Khamenei.”
- •Protesters erected barricades and burned tires; security forces used tear gas and, according to later video evidence cited by the author, fired directly into crowds.
- •Clashes intensified in western Tehran near Sadeghieh Square, where plainclothes agents beat protesters; the author reports witnessing a stabbing by an agent.
- •Internet shutdowns disrupted communication and services such as ATMs; heightened security included riot motorcycles and armored vehicles with mounted machine guns.