In recent weeks, pro-Iranian social media accounts have been circulating AI-generated propaganda videos depicting the latest developments of the war in Iran through animated Lego figurines and rap lyrics. Our lab co-director, Claes de Vreese, has spoken to de Volkskrant and RTL Nieuws about the effects of these posts and the strategy behind them.
Thanks to the low amount of effort needed to create and distribute AI-generated animations, videos like these act as a powerful tool for political regimes like Iran’s to more directly communicate their preferred narrative. The posts are visually appealing, entertaining, and by also playing on current trends and pop culture, they deliver easily understandable messages to social media audiences. However, they can contain factual inaccuracies too, as per RTL Nieuws. Official accounts are also being used: the Iranian embassy in the Hague recently re-uploaded an AI-generated video depicting Trump as a toy whom Benjamin Netanyahu is playing with, in the animation style of the Pixar animated movie Toy Story. AI content being distributed through official social media channels of public administrations is nothing new; the X accounts of Donald Trump himself and the White House have been employing the similar strategies for some time, even using AI-manipulated images to dramatize a protester’s arrest. It is a growing phenomenon, which warrants dedicating more attention to the ways in which political leaders and institutions are shifting their public communication styles, both amidst conflict and during peace time.
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