How do you know if protests in a country are actual protests or just western backed color revolution protests?

Litmus test: Are they suddenly getting widespread positive coverage in western news?

But the real answer is that every protest is on a spectrum between the two. What makes a color revolution so effective is that it redirects legitimate alienation towards reactionary ends

Yeah I'd agree with that litmus test. Ukraine is a good example of that, even disregarding their 2004 protest as I'm not sure it always comes in the form of a peaceful protest.

Ukraine was ranked as one of the more corrupt countries in the world circa ~2015.

Then there was a TV show running in Ukraine from 2015 to 2019 starring Zelensky as president of Ukraine. You'll never guess what happened next...

And before everyone gets all "Ukraine good, Russia bad" yes, that was horrible of Russia to start a war. Fuck politicians for using people as pawns.

But I think this paints a clearer picture as to how we got here
- This is hexbear, we use Moscow time to plan our movie nights /j
  
  Seriously though, the backpedaling is going to get more pushback than criticizing the oligarchs and their pet banderites.
- yes, that was horrible of Russia to start a war.
  
  Honestly not really. The alternative was allow Ukraine to set up as a springboard for operation Barbarossa 2, which would mean nuclear war. Russia objectively saved the world by destroying a decades worth of western plans in Ukraine. Feel bad for the citizens of the Donbas obviously, but even western Ukrainian citizens only have so much of my sympathy. Now they’re being picked up off the street and suddenly war in the east isn’t so fun anymore.
Potential for co-option always blurs the line, too, especially in cases like decentralized Occupy sort of stuff. That sort of leaderless, ad-hoc angle can have perks, but leaves a fundamental opening for bad actors.
Litmus test: Are they suddenly getting widespread positive coverage in western news?

Came here to post this same thing. More to it than that, and there's a lot of great answers here, but that is a shortcut to at least determine if its sus.
- More to it than that
  
  give me more. what else can be a sign?

Color revolutions:

English signs in a country where nobody speaks English.
Anglo media platforms those protests.
Anglo social media does nothing but talk about them.
Democracy^TM
Leaders are all cutouts of some Western NGO.
Leaders speak perfect English.
Memes and symbols that come from the protests can always be perfectly translated into English with no cultural context lost.

There's also some dipshit French public intellectual^TM who always shows up right when a color revolution is about to commence, but I forgot the dude's name.

Flying the flags of western nations and explicit calling for them to do a military intervention against the country

colour revolution pics with flags in them
- That "President Trump, please liberate Honh Kong" is our but 100% unironic lol
Bernard-Henri Levy lol
- Yep, that's him lol
- Yup. Him or Glucksman basically.
★★★★★
There’s also some dipshit French public intellectualTM who always shows up right when a color revolution is about to commence, but I forgot the dude’s name.

Hmmm might be Raphael Glucksmann ?
- Yes.

I mean, one big red flag in a color revolution is... uh.. everyone coordinating around a big colored flag.

Can't help but notice a huge fixation on liberal talking points - fixations on "free press" and "free trade" and "no more corruption", particularly absent any tolerance for criticism of western venues. Any time people start waving American / British / French flags, that's a huge warning sign. Insinuations that the current head of state is either a closeted homosexual or secretly about to die are also great signifiers. The hornier the press is for a potential replacement ~~dictator~~ senior executive, the more likely its an Op.

1: lots of signs in English (assuming it's a non-English speaking country)

2: really vague, buzzword based political goals ("democracy" "freedom" "power to the people")

Is a color Revolution just like an astroturf by the fed and private business
- Yeah, it's just a Cold War-era term for sabotage via astroturfed counterrevolution.

The amount of English used. English communications are usually for a foreign, likely American or general Western audience.

Obviously this only applies to non English speaking countries, or countries where English is not the lingua franca.

Empty cardboard boxes in israel labeled "BABY FOOD"
- Or when Israel has propaganda videos telling Gazans what to do, in English while the internet is cut off in Gaza.
Mild push back here, a lot of pro-palestine stuff is in English even from Palestine.

Are the people protesting carrying signs in english and not in their native language ? then probably is a color revolution protest.

Are there a bunch of British and American flags being waved by the protestors? Do they have a bunch of signs in english for no reason? Are they asking for foreign intervention from NATO or the US? Is CNN and other bourgeois media reporting on it nonstop, and are they described as freedom fighters by such media? It's always kind of obvious when it's a color revolution.

How the Western media covers it within the international-community-1 international-community-2

Yeah this is the best way. Does the USA endorse the protests? Then something's fishy.

When Azov Nazis showed up at the HK protests a few years ago, you just know.

The protest's endgoal seems to be about opening up the country to increased Western capital.

Support from OSINT

Support from OSINT

Damn, this is so good. Another good criterion.
As in the people on Twitter whose thing is that they do OSINT? Or do you mean something else?
- Yes, I think so.

Well most protest movements will be attempted to get co-opted by the us, if they aid the us empires wants, but that's not really answering your question.

If all the signs are in English you might be in a color revolution. If you're demonstrating for vague amaricanized ideals like a general sense of "freedom" you might be in a colour revolution. If you get a lot of attention from us media, despite having a small size, you might be in a color revolution. If your "leaders" seemingly come out of nowhere and all have pete vibes, you just might be in a colour revolution

The thing about spycraft is you you will never really know for sure. However, if it serves western interests it doesn't matter. You have to treat them like it is

Spoiler: it always is. Colour coups are very cheap money and manpower wise compared to results, so there's always some dirty CIA money under them.

In non-English speaking countries: more signs in English than the local language(s). Memes relating to Western popular culture, extensively shared on western media platforms (Instagram, Facebook)

Hlaf agree on this because of the english in signs BUT the simpsons are latin american heritage and you will see memes with them
- Yeah definitely, I guess it's an indicator not a smoking gun. Personally I was thinking the Hunger Games/Milktea Alliance stuff in SE Asia, I'm not familiar with latin American memes.
I was going to say, the protest signs are a good additional piece of data, along with other things. If they’re in the local language, it’s pretty obvious who the target audience is. If it’s in English… a little suspect (in my book)

Vincent Bevins wrote a book on protests movements. I recommend reading it: "If we burn". Weirdly pro-HK protests perspective, but salvageable. The internet gave the US a lot of tools to brainfry people by amplyfing the right protests and messages within large protests, along with the western media empires in general, and especially horizontalist movements suffer from it pretty badly, being not able to out-maneuver ngos or having no idea how to wield power, so that the systemic inertia of western imperialism made a lot of things skew towards western interests without any active subjective input.

Here in Latam? Skin color

it hurts that this is so on point as a white latam.

It's not binary, it's normally messy, politics is very messy

Yeah, US State/CIA don't create these kind of protests out of thin air. They usually insert themselves into legitimate protests movements of people with real issues with their government, but who don't want to overthrow it and become US puppets.

That's what happened at the Tianemen Square protests. The mass of people were socialists students with issues they cared about, but US State backed elements worked their way into coopting it. The Belarus protests from a few years ago is a more recent example.
- Another good example of the US co-opting an existing movement (albiet on a larger scale) is how the CIA trained and equipped the Mujahideen to kill the Soviets in Afghanistan.

Are all the major media channels covering it non stop in the exact same way?

Are US politicians constantly talking about it?

Most likely orders were handed down to show and say exactly what to manufacture consent.

Are they waving the flags of the great Satan and one of the most violent imperialist countries in modern history?

it's an imaginary distinction. every "color revolution" represents some real current of popular sentiment within a society. the question is not "are all these people that i'm seeing in the streets actually all paid protestors?" but rather "what segment of the society as a whole are these people speaking for, and what are their interests?"

recall the trucker protests in canada. these were real pissed off truckers using a small number of large machines to cause a lot of economic disruption. but by and large they were middle class small holders who owned their own vehicles and could afford to miss work for weeks at a time, not to articulate any specific demands, but to throw a tantrum brought on by their ambient sense that they were not the god kings of their own legacy that settler mythology taught them they could be.

Having multiple sources of information helps. Hanging out in leftist spaces one can (sometimes) hear rumblings before an explosive incident. It's when it happens in a vacuum that I get suspicious.

If rfa or rferl is too chummy about it.

The presence of amerikkka and nowadays, ukkkraine flags, with the latter also becoming much more of a virulent sight.

The blueprint of regime change operations

You should read what the local communist party is writing about it, and see if it makes sense. if they're self-hating imperialist sell outs, it's normally not that hard to pick up on, like the handful of freaks in Left 21 who tried to claim a left opposition to the PRC in some cringe english articles during the HK Revolution of Our Times.

This is my strategy too: look to the local marxists and get s vibe check that way

If it’s a Latin American country: what % of the protesters are white lol.