New Delhi, March 18 -- Iranian American Ariana Afshar has tried to produce commentary about the first weeks of the war in the Middle East based on the perspectives of people in Iran.

But the New York-based social media creator keeps running into an obstacle: An internet blackout imposed by the government in Tehran has stifled almost all communications from the country. That makes it nearly impossible to reliably survey perspectives on the escalating conflict from inside Iran, where Afshar lived as a teenager and still has family.

That absence has amplified the voices of Iranian American social media creators, who are now explaining the nation's complicated history and the conflicting desires of its citizens in succinct videos that are w...