From Khamenei to Stalin: How Far Left Social Media Channels Glorify Dictators and Rewrite History
“The collapse of the Soviet Union was catastrophic”, the question what were the “two major achievements of Mao Zedong”, “Ayatollah Khomeini frees women and black hostages” and “China is in a very important process to build Socialism”. These and other statements are catchphrases in a worldwide network of English language far left channels that are more or less not even attempting to hide their affection for authoritarian regimes, as long as they are anti Western enough. This far left movement, fond of authoritarian regimes, hates in particular “liberals”, for which they use pejorative terms like “libshits”. No matter if it is about center right or center left people, anybody who opposes orthodox Marxist Leninist ideology and regimes is an enemy. Compared to travel influencers that usually whitewash authoritarian regimes and try to leave out the “hot topics”, these far left advocates for the dictators of the world address these questions more openly. According to some of them, the Tiananmen Massacre never happened, to others it was deserved, there are no problems with the Uighurs in China or they are only measures against terrorists, Stalin was not a bloodthirsty dictator but a successful transformist, and Iran is a beacon against “Western Zionist Imperialism”.
Welcome to the world of “tankies”, how liberals used to call them because of their support for tank driven communism in Hungary 1956 and Czechoslovakia 1968. These events caused widespread discussions in the far left of the 20th century, a discussion and split that is still ongoing. The ones who supported these invasions, also the Tiananmen Massacre and Mao’s Cultural Revolution, are the people that are called tankies today. For Generation Z far left activists it is a great way to provoke, to go one step further. It is not only about opposing the West, it is about openly showing solidarity with the West’s greatest enemies, no matter how reactionary they are from a Western leftist perspective.
On the other hand, “tankies” do not care that much about domestic or identity politics, but a lot about the big international questions. The Middle East, where they support Iran, East Asia, where they support China and even North Korea. There are even groups and accounts that are aimed at “debunking the Western lies” about North Korea. Below one video from a “happy North Korean” pupil, one user posted: “stop believing in Jew American propaganda”. Another posting says in favor of Iran and Russia: “Zelensky, the Pentagon, and others admit that Russia and Iran are making it completely unsustainable for Zionists of Israel and the West and the neo Nazis of Ukraine to continue their imperialist conquests.” Here we have a combination of pro Russian and pro Iranian statements.
A page called “Islamic Communist Friendship” highlights existing or alleged collaboration between communist regimes and leaders from the Islamic world, including Khamenei, Khomeini, and Yasser Arafat. The conflict in the Middle East plays a crucial role in their narratives, AI generated postings, and montages.
While it is more intense on TikTok, also on Instagram the algorithm showed us over and over again such channels and narratives. The Burkinabé military dictator Ibrahim Traoré, who banned homosexuality and has close relations to the Kremlin, is quoted about his refusal of democracy, “not for us”. Still, Traoré gets celebrated in certain TikTok and Instagram circles as an important figure of “anti colonialism” and a resistance fighter against “Western imperialism”. This absurd narrative also triggered criticism by center left accounts that asked at least for a more nuanced portrait of Traoré. This criticism was dismissed as a “Western imperial lens” that tries to “project Western views” on Africa, which means nothing else than that it should not be allowed to criticize a homophobic, autocratic dictator if he is not in the West and opposes the West. What can be observed about tankies, no matter if it is about the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Russia, or other anti Western dictatorships, is that the oppressed people who suffer under these regimes are often ignored. At the same time, the ruling class of these regimes is often praised with little or no criticism, even by people who constantly talk about “class struggle” and “the ruling class” in the West.
Military dictator Ibrahim Traoré gets portrayed “differently” on certain channels.
When in Senegal tougher laws against homosexuality were adopted, a new law doubling to 10 years the maximum prison term for sexual acts by same sex couples and criminalising the “promotion” of homosexuality, some framed it as an act of “anti colonialism” and freedom from a Western imposed worldview. “The majority of Senegalese do not accept homosexuality. Our culture rejects it and we are firmly opposed to it,” said Amadou Moustapha Ndieck Sarré from the Senegalese government.
Fama Ba, Senegalese MP, said in Parliament, in a famous speech spread all over social media:
“Here in our Africa, here in Senegal, we don’t accept this homosexuality, that’s not in our culture, that’s not in our tradition, that’s clear.”
One influencer reacts to criticism of these developments: “leave Senegal alone, why should they adapt Western values, think about the colonial past, Senegal is Muslim, 95% oppose homosexuality”. There are several comments like this, showing the double standards in the movements of the anti imperialist left, but also the anti colonial movement. The anti colonial movement seems to focus only on Western colonialism but tends to ignore Russian, Chinese, and Arab colonialism completely. There even seems to exist a widespread sympathy for pan Arab movements, and even radical groups like the Muslim Brotherhood connected to Hamas or the Shia Hezbollah, which they call “resistance groups” instead of terrorists.
Then we can observe a tendency, especially on social media, to provoke with the demand for more radical views. It is not only about supporting China anymore, it is about supporting North Korea and the Iranian regime. One Instagram page has the telling name “Gulag the Liberals”, which shows exactly what these movements think about center left progressive people that do not support “revolution”.
Gulag the Liberals also collaborates with other far left “tankie” channels
Talking about revolution, we see that some “brands” are connected internally, for instance the “Revolutionary Communist Party”, which, as the name already says, calls for a revolution against the system. There are social media pages named “Revolutionary Communist Party” in several countries and languages. In the US, the controversial influencer Jackson Hinkle founded the “American Communist Party” (ACP) in 2024. Hinkle praises Russia, China, North Korea, and the Iranian regime openly on his X account, while he constantly attacks the West.
A small compilation of recent postings by Jackson Hinkle (X.com)
A lot of these pages by the authoritarian far left received many new followers after October 7th and the following criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. While before, the topics were more diverse, many of the Marxist Leninist pages focused heavily on the Israel Gaza war and later the Iran war. While these pages ignore the Hamas attacks, the role of the Houthis, Hezbollah, and the Iranian regime, some of them even support all of them, many pro Palestine activists do not seem bothered to take a deeper look at what kind of groups they are following and supporting online.
The goal of these pages is not objective criticism of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the Iran war, or the activities of illegal Israeli settlers in Palestine. With the controversial issue of the situation in the Middle East, these pages collect many new followers, whom they can introduce step by step to other topics: “Is China the better democracy?” “Do they lie even about North Korea?” “Why is history wrong about Stalin?” There is no limit.
Technical background information: The research for this article was largely conducted on Instagram and TikTok. Both platforms contributed through their algorithms by repeatedly showing this kind of content from the Stalinist, Maoist, Marxist Leninist spectrum during the research process. This “calibration” of the algorithm happened especially fast on TikTok. The previously mentioned content was only occasionally interrupted by far right content or pro Russian activists with flags. It should also be mentioned that although these are largely small extra parliamentary fringe groups, some of their social media channels achieve enormous reach and are internationally connected.
On TikTok, it was extremely easy and fast to repeatedly receive the kind of content described in this article
Links:
Burkina Faso must “forget” about democracy, military leader says. 3 April 2026. Wedaeli Chibelushi.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly0zp1xgz3o
Tankies: A Data-driven Understanding of Left-Wing Extremists on Social Media. Global Network on Extremism and Technology, October 2023.
https://gnet-research.org/2023/10/02/tankies-a-data-driven-understanding-of-left-wing-extremists-on-social-media/
Why Europe’s radicals – left and right – align on Russia. Ciara Boulman. The European Correspondent, March 2025.
https://europeancorrespondent.com/en/r/why-europes-radicals-left-and-right-align-on-russia/
Gen Z romanticizes the Soviet Union as “vibey,” forgetting it was a regime of repression, poverty, and silence, April 2026 United24
https://x.com/United24media/status/2047105572844044751
Dietmar Pichler ist Chief Analyst und Redakteur bei INVED und verfügt über umfassende Expertise in den Bereichen Desinformation, Medienkompetenz und ausländische Einflussnahme. Er analysiert Desinformationskampagnen sowie propagandistische Einflussstrategien autoritärer Regime. Neben seiner Tätigkeit bei INVED ist er als freiberuflicher Medienkompetenztrainer, Berater für strategische Kommunikation und Desinformationsanalyst in Wien tätig. Er ist Vizepräsident der NGO „Vienna Goes Europe“ und Gründer der Initiative „Disinfo Resilience Network“, die sich der Vernetzung von Fachleuten zur Aufdeckung und Einordnung hybrider Bedrohungen widmet.