Israel-linked entities tied to global anti-Muslim disinformation campaign: Report

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, according to a new report.

The report, Manufacturing The Great Replacement, found that the campaign ran from October 2023 to October 2026, generating an estimated 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.”

According to the report, the campaign spread racist, anti-Muslim, anti-migrant, anti-Qatar and anti-Iran narratives through social media advertisements, AI-generated videos, music, video game parodies and repurposed footage.

One campaign, titled Grand Theft Qatar, depicted Emiratis buying European buildings and converting them into mosques.

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Other advertisements featured slogans such as “THIS IS AN INVASION” and “QATAR IS ISLAMISING EUROPE.”

The campaign promoted the Great Replacement, a debunked white nationalist conspiracy theory claiming that migration and demographic changes are deliberately replacing white Europeans with nonwhite populations.

Researchers trace operation to Israel-linked entities

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.

The researchers 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.

Researchers also 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.

“We’re constantly working to identify and disrupt coordinated inauthentic behaviour,” the company told The National.

Meta added that its Community Standards prohibit hate speech, harmful misinformation, deceptive behavior and coordinated inauthentic activity.

The researchers called for stronger government regulation, including stricter identity verification requirements for social media advertisers and faster action against coordinated influence campaigns.

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