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Protest Tracker Launches: US, UK and Iran, With Sources

Peter’s World launches a sourced Protest Tracker for the US, UK and Iran. How it counts crowds and casualties, and what the first 75 entries show.

ByPeter
Stylised illustration of a crowd marching along a city street at dusk
AI-generated illustration

Peter’s World has launched the Protest Tracker, a dated, searchable record of protests in the United States, the United Kingdom and Iran. At launch it holds 75 entries: 29 for the US, 24 for the UK and 22 for Iran. Every crowd, arrest or casualty figure is credited to whoever gave it.

At a glance

  • Coverage: 75 entries, 58 of them from the past 12 months. Five are ongoing and three are announced for October.
  • Method: figures are shown as attributed ranges (organisers, police, independent monitors), never as one unsourced number.
  • Iran: casualty and arrest figures are disputed and largely unverified because access is restricted.
Stylised illustration of a crowd marching along a city street at dusk
AI-generated illustration

What the tracker covers

An entry is a public gathering, march, strike, sit-in or sustained campaign with a political aim, plus a small number of “context” entries such as court rulings or official reports that shape a movement. Each carries organisers, size claims, the response of police or government, and a verification note. Countries are a data field, so more can be added without changing the page.

How claims are handled

  • Attribution. Crowd sizes, arrests and deaths appear as separate claims, for example “organisers said”, “police said” and “an independent monitor estimated”, each with its date and link.
  • Claims stay claims. Statements by organisers, governments and police are reported as theirs. Where only one side has spoken, the entry says so.
  • Neutral wording. The tracker says “protesters” and “security forces”, and reports violence only where a named source reports it.
  • Labelled text. Summaries are marked as paraphrase. Quotations are short and linked. Analysis is separated from fact and labelled.

United States: immigration enforcement and national days of action

Immigration is the largest topic among the 29 US entries, with 10, followed by civil rights and democracy (6) and war and foreign policy (5). The largest events are the “No Kings” days of action. For the third, on 28 March 2026, organisers told the Guardian they counted more than 8 million people at more than 3,300 events. The Christian Science Monitor reported “several million” people and said the White House dismissed the rallies as having little public support.

For the second day, on 18 October 2025, organisers said nearly 7 million people took part, according to ABC News. An independent crowdsourced estimate by G. Elliott Morris gave a median of 5.0 million and an upper bound of 6.5 million. The tracker shows both. A further “No Kings: Vote Early” day of action is announced for 17 October.

United Kingdom: marches, rival rallies and the Palestine Action ban

The UK entries are led by war and foreign policy (7) and civil rights (6). On 13 September 2025 the Metropolitan Police estimated 110,000 to 150,000 people at the Unite the Kingdom rally and about 5,000 at the counter-protest, and published how it counted. On 16 May 2026 the Met put the Unite the Kingdom crowd at about 60,000, while organisers had hoped for a million or more, the Guardian reported. The Met said both that event and a pro-Palestinian march passed off without significant incidents.

The Palestine Action campaign is the longest-running legal story. The Guardian reports that more than 3,000 people have been arrested and more than 700 charged under section 13 of the Terrorism Act. The Court of Appeal held on 15 June 2026 that the ban was lawful. The Supreme Court is due to hear the case on 4 and 5 November. Two marches in London are announced for 7 and 10 October; the Met anticipates about 300 and up to 10,000 people respectively.

Iran: disputed figures and restricted access

Iran’s 22 entries cover the protests that began on 28 December 2025 with a bazaar strike over the rial’s fall, the crackdown in January, the war-time internet blackout and later executions. No single figure for deaths is agreed. The rights group HRANA, in its 50-day record, listed 7,007 confirmed deaths, including 6,488 protesters, and 53,777 arrests. The Iranian government’s figure, as cited by the UN fact-finding mission, is 3,038 killed and 25,000 injured. The Mission said it has “strong grounds to believe” the true totals are significantly higher, but could not yet determine them.

The government told the Mission that “certain groups, under the guidance of terrorist elements” committed violence and that a “significant number” of security personnel were killed. The state-aligned agency WANA reported 23 to 26 million attendees at government-organised rallies on 11 February; the tracker lists that as a claim. On executions, Iran Human Rights counts 32 people executed in connection with the protests since 19 March, the UN Mission at least 29, and Human Rights Watch and the Boroumand Center at least 59 men on political charges since March, including at least 29 arrested over the protests. The counts differ in scope and date.

Analysis

Analysis (Peter’s World): the entries show that the gap between organiser and independent estimates is routine in the US and UK, while in Iran the gap between official and monitor figures is far wider and cannot be closed independently. The tracker does not choose between them. It shows each, with its source.

What is not included

Claims that could not be traced to a named source were dropped rather than rounded or paraphrased. Some sites, including Reuters and several police forces, block automated link checks; each entry’s verification note says when a source could not be read. Corrections go to contact@petersworld.org.

Sources

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