The Markaz Review:

By Alexander Abdelilah and Frédéric Métézeau

On the morning of Sunday, March 1, as Israel and the United States bombed Iran, Iranians received a threatening text message from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The regime’s armed wing remains in power, despite blows from the American and Israeli armies.

“Any action that disrupts security will be viewed as cooperation with the enemy and will be dealt with firmly,” the text read.

The message was a direct response to Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s calls for an uprising the previous day at the start of their military strikes.

“The hour of your freedom is at hand… when we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations,” the US president said in a video statement posted to social media.

Scenes of jubilation followed the announcement of the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed when his compound was bombed on Saturday, February 28. Some Iranians celebrated the death of a tyrant with singing and dancing in the streets, applause and shouts of joy. But rising up against the regime, even a weakened one, is something else. The Revolutionary Guards’ warning is clear. They won’t tolerate any protest. During the uprisings in December 2025 and January 2026, at least 30,000 Iranians were massacred with machine guns, assault rifles, and other weapons of war (see sidebar).

More than 30,000 killed during the January 2026 protests
The protest movement against the high cost of living started in late December 2025, at the Tehran Grand Bazaar, and gradually spread across Iran, peaking in January 2026. Suppressed testimonies have gradually emerged since, notably about events on January 8 and 9. Over two days, Iranians took to the streets en masse, and the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus cracked down violently. Early estimates suggest that more than 30,000 people were killed in 48 hours. For Iranian cybersecurity researcher Nima Fatemi, all evidence indicates that Iranian authorities used the Russian facial recognition software FindFace during this period — even if it’s impossible to verify on the ground. “Given the intensity of the events and the fact that the Iranian regime had to deploy all its resources to suppress the popular movement, I assume that it was operational during this period,” said Fatemi.

Now, with the “Eyes of Iran” project, Forbidden Stories and media partners Le Monde, Paper Trail Media, Der Spiegel, Der Standard, Tamedia and ZDF reveal the Iranian regime’s widespread use of a particularly powerful Russian facial recognition software — in collaboration with The Signals Network, a whistleblower support organization. This software has potentially devastating consequences for people who want to take to the streets again.

During the recent protests, Iranians suspected that the authorities had such a repressive tool at their disposal, as evidenced by several similar videos from Iran. In one of them, a hooded man dressed in black climbs a pole and strikes a surveillance camera perched several metres above the ground. It falls to pieces. Below, a crowd of demonstrators cheers the climber on.

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