Viral AI Fakes Spread as Millions Attend Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Funeral in Tehran

Viral AI fakes spread across social media as Iran mourned former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with France 24 describing how misleading videos and photos falsely claimed to show the funeral procession in Tehran.

“The funeral of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran drew large crowds, in a scene that attracted the attention of journalists, analysts, and political observers inside Iran and abroad, and renewed questions about what participation signified and its scale”

An-Nahar

France 24 said huge crowds gathered in Tehran on Monday as the coffin was carried through the capital following two days lying in state at the Grand Mosalla mosque.

An-Nahar

France 24 reported that one widely shared pro-regime video claimed to depict the "largest funeral in history" but contained AI clues including meaningless Persian text and a mosque dome that appeared white rather than blue.

France 24 also said an AI-generated image falsely claimed to show crowds around Tehran's Azadi Tower and that OpenAI's image detection identified a SynthID watermark.

In parallel, Democracy Now! described millions of Iranians attending a multiday state funeral for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who it said was killed by a joint Israeli-U.S. airstrike on February 28.

CNN reported that dayslong funeral ceremonies for slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were taking place in the sacred Iranian city of Qom, about 80 miles south of Tehran.

CNN said Khamenei’s son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, had yet to appear publicly since his father’s killing, while the city’s Jamkaran Mosque hosted prayers before the procession moved.

AP News

WANA News Agency said the funeral procession began in Qom after funeral prayers for Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei were led by Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli at Jamkaran Mosque, before the procession moved toward the Shrine of Fatima Masumeh.

WANA reported that the nearly seven-kilometer route between Jamkaran Mosque and the shrine had been filled with mourners for hours before the ceremony began, and that crowds chanted slogans supporting Iran’s new leader, Ayatollah Seyed Mojtaba Khamenei.

The Guardian described a fourth day of mourning in Tehran with vengeful chants against U.S. President Donald Trump and banners reading "We the people are Iran’s true missiles," as people walked down Azadi Street toward Revolution Square.

NBC News said a truck carrying the coffin of Iran’s slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, crawled through Tehran’s thronged streets on Monday to chants of "death to America" and "death to Israel," with coffins of family members also killed in the airstrike on Feb. 28.

“Iran: End of the funeral ceremonies for the coffin of Khamenei the father in Tehran”

BBC

NBC reported that a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told NBC News at the procession that the war would not be "over for us" until Khamenei’s death was avenged, as the funeral events kept U.S.-Iran talks on pause.

AP said authorities shut down streets, airspace and daily life for the mourning, which began Saturday and would end Thursday as Khamenei is buried at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, his birthplace.

AP reported that Khamenei’s casket was flown later Monday to the Shiite seminary city of Qom, after a roughly 12-hour journey through Tehran to Mehrabad International Airport.

Democracy Now! said President Trump renewed threats to attack Iran and warned Tehran to reach an agreement or see the U.S., quoting "finish the job," while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations on a final deal will not commence as long as threats continue.