Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has deleted a tweet that contained false information about mass executions in Iran, following a viral social media campaign that circulated the fake news.   

  Celebrities and users shared a photo on Instagram showing a woman holding an Iranian flag with the caption “Iran sentences 15,000 protesters to death – as a ‘harsh lesson’ for all rebels.”   

  Instagram has since flagged the post as “False information” and said that “Independent auditors say this information has no basis in fact.”   

  The post, which has since been taken down, was shared by celebrities including actresses Sophie Turner and Viola Davis.   

  Trudeau tweeted late Monday that Canada denounces the “barbaric decision by the Iranian regime to execute nearly 15,000 protesters.”  The tweet was up for 12 hours before it was removed.   

  “The post has been updated from the original report which was incomplete and lacked the necessary context.  Because of that, it has since been deleted,” a Canadian government spokesperson told CNN.   

  “It was based on the report of serious concerns expressed by international human rights advocates warning of possible future penalties, including the death penalty, to be meted out to thousands of Iranian protesters already detained by the regime,” the spokesman added.   

  CNN has reached out to Iran’s foreign ministry for comment.   

  Iranian lawmakers are demanding that the country’s judiciary show “no leniency” to protesters, but so far one person has been formally sentenced to death by the judiciary this week.  But the UN warned last week that others were at risk of receiving a similar sentence.   

  “With the continued crackdown on protests, many more indictments on charges that carry the death penalty and death sentences may be issued soon,” UN experts said last week.   

  “We should not overlook the fact that one person has already been sentenced to death and that Iranian parliamentarians should not call for the imposition of any death penalty.  Already, dozens of protesters have been killed by the regime’s security forces,” the Canadian government spokesman said.   

  Iran has arrested more than 14,000 people in a crackdown since protests began across Iran in September, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, Ja’aid Rehman, said earlier this month.   

  At least 2,000 people have been charged for their alleged involvement in nationwide protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, the largest such demonstration of dissent in years.  The trials are public and have been running for more than two weeks.  The sentences can be appealed, according to state news agency IRNA.   

  At least 326 people were killed in the protests, human rights groups said.  CNN cannot independently verify arrest figures, death tolls and many of the accounts of the dead due to the Iranian government’s crackdown on media, internet and transparency.   

  Iran’s Revolutionary Court has handed down the death sentence to an unnamed protester who allegedly set fire to a government building, state media reported on Sunday.  Five others who took part in the protests were sentenced to between five and ten years in prison, convicted of “collaborating to commit a crime against national security and disturbing public peace and order”.   

  The protests have sparked a fierce battle to control the online narrative, with both supporters and opponents of the government using social media to tell their version of the truth.   

  With access to Twitter blocked in Iran, this battle is mostly being fought outside the country.