As far as I could tell the Shah guy isn’t actually intent on becoming a monarch (he was fairly critical of his dad) but wants to help Iran transition towards democracy. How he does that, no clue.
Still, apparently that guy is the dude most Iranians trust to take over. I say most, but it’s still barely 30% iirc; Iranians are pretty disillusioned with their (potential) leaders at the moment.
Investigations by Haaretz and TheMarker reported the existence of an Israeli-linked influence network aimed at shaping Iranian public opinion and promoting Pahlavi as a potential post–Islamic Republic leader. The reports claim the network was operated by a private entity funded by Israeli government resources, used artificial intelligence, and relied on fake online accounts, particularly Persian-language profiles. The network allegedly recruited Persian speakers who reposted content from Reza Pahlavi.[99]
Whether or not he claims so, he’s pro-US and pro-Israel so they are pushing hard to restore the monarchy. Any support you see for him is likely astroturfed
Edit: besides, trusting an autocrat who promises to “transition to democracy at some point in the future” is the stupidest thing one can do during a popular uprising
His support numbers are certainly somewhat pushed up.
However, on Reddit (on the subreddit r/newiran, which I must note is disproportionately pro-Pahlavi) someone proposed a method of verifying how much of his support genuinely came from Iran.
They measured the drop in viewership of his videos at the beginning of the Internet blackout. They concluded that most viewers were from Iran, since traffic dropped several times with the blackout.
As far as I could tell the Shah guy isn’t actually intent on becoming a monarch (he was fairly critical of his dad) but wants to help Iran transition towards democracy. How he does that, no clue.
Still, apparently that guy is the dude most Iranians trust to take over. I say most, but it’s still barely 30% iirc; Iranians are pretty disillusioned with their (potential) leaders at the moment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reza_Pahlavi,_Crown_Prince_of_Iran
Whether or not he claims so, he’s pro-US and pro-Israel so they are pushing hard to restore the monarchy. Any support you see for him is likely astroturfed
Edit: besides, trusting an autocrat who promises to “transition to democracy at some point in the future” is the stupidest thing one can do during a popular uprising
His support numbers are certainly somewhat pushed up.
However, on Reddit (on the subreddit r/newiran, which I must note is disproportionately pro-Pahlavi) someone proposed a method of verifying how much of his support genuinely came from Iran.
They measured the drop in viewership of his videos at the beginning of the Internet blackout. They concluded that most viewers were from Iran, since traffic dropped several times with the blackout.