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Social media have played a crucial role in organizing and directing the anti-government protests in Iran, assuming a leading role when in fact the protests were not organized by any political force, an Armenian expert on Iranian studies said on Thursday.

“50 percent of the Iranian people are young men under the age of 30, according to the official statistics, with the median age of society standing at 31. 80% of the population use mobile phones and 50% have access to the internet. Consequently, 80-95% of the youth use the internet actively engaging in the social developments,” Armen Israyelyan wrote on Facebook.

“It was through the social media that the people quickly organized themselves and staged protests almost simultaneously across the town and cities,” he added.

Speaking about the traditional media, the analyst noted the Iranian media outlets, except a number of newspapers and websites close to the president, failed to objectively cover the developments inside the country, which was greatly used by the foreign-sponsored news outlets.

“Iran’s society is currently undergoing serious changes, and today’s society is essentially different from the one ten years ago, Therefore the Iranian authorities refrained from the measures taken in 2009 given these changes,” Israyelyan said.

According to the expert, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to blame for the country’s poor state of economy, rather than President Hassan Rouhani. “Naturally the society has greater demands from the president who signed the nuclear deal, but it is already another topic for discussion, which is related not only to domestic issues and Rouhani’s capacities and wishes, but also to the regional processes that have a great impact and Iran’s obligatory involvement in them,” the expert concluded.

To note, the anti-government protests mainly sparked by social issues continue in Iran, leaving more than 20 people dead and 450 arrested.