Israel-linked operation spent millions on anti-Muslim disinformation
07:58, 04/11/2026, WednesdayU: Update: 08:26, 04/11/2026, Wednesday
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A new report has found that Israel-linked entities spent over $8 million promoting anti-Muslim conspiracy theories across more than 30 countries, generating an estimated 800 million advertising exposures through AI-generated videos and social media campaigns.
Global influence operation
The report titled "Manufacturing The Great Replacement" found that an influence operation linked to entities based in Israel spent an estimated £6.12 million ($8.2 million) promoting anti-Muslim conspiracy theories across more than 30 countries from October 2023 to October 2026, generating approximately 800 million advertising exposures across Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East.
Researchers Marc Owen Jones and Sohan Dsouza described the operation as "one of the largest influence and disinformation campaigns ever documented." The campaign spread racist, anti-Muslim, anti-migrant, anti-Qatar and anti-Iran narratives through social media advertisements, AI-generated videos, music and video game parodies, including a production titled "Grand Theft Qatar" that depicted Emiratis purchasing European buildings and converting them into mosques. Other advertisements featured slogans including "THIS IS AN INVASION" and "QATAR IS ISLAMISING EUROPE," promoting the debunked white nationalist "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory that claims migration deliberately replaces white Europeans with nonwhite populations.
Israeli connections and platform response
Dsouza told The National that researchers could not conclusively attribute the operation to the Israeli government. "We can't really assert that it definitely is Israel. But the evidence shows that the entities involved in this operation are based in Israel and have connections to influence operations run by the Israeli government," he said, adding that investigators traced the campaign's initial operations to Israel through Vietnamese proxy companies. Following enforcement action by Meta in May 2024, the operation resurfaced in November and later shifted to Brazilian corporate entities.
The investigation identified 1,473 Facebook advertisements, 189 YouTube videos, 359 TikTok advertisements and 105 TikTok account videos, according to the report. Researchers examined 406 comments on Facebook advertisements targeting UK audiences in 2024, finding that 61% expressed support for Islamophobic views. Meta acknowledged in 2024 that the operation had spent £900,000 on advertisements across its platforms, stating: "We're constantly working to identify and disrupt coordinated inauthentic behaviour."