Pro-Iran group Explosive Media trolls Trump with AI Lego videos that rack up millions of views

Pro-Iran Explosive Media trolls Trump with AI-generated Lego cartoons

Minutes after President Donald Trump announced that he would not wipe out "a whole civilization" on Tuesday evening, a team of self-described young Iranian activists jumped into action. Members of the group known as Explosive Media were putting the finishing touches on their latest AI-generated, Lego-inspired Trump video. The video features a Trump mini-figure colluding with leaders from Gulf states, Iranian officials pressing a big red button labeled "back to the stone age," and Trump throwing a chair at US generals. This was the latest of more than a dozen videos the pro-Iran group has released since the beginning of the war in February, many of which have racked up millions of views on mainstream platforms. While Iranian government accounts have posted Lego-style videos in the past, Explosive Media's content is more sophisticated and scripted. And it's produced by a team of young pro-Iranian creators who appear deeply knowledgeable about the Internet and American culture. Already some critics have alleged the group has ties to the Iranian government. "We were almost certain Trump would back down; it was clear to us," a member of the Explosive Media team, who did not want to publicly identify themselves, tells WIRED. "We were prepared for this scenario and had content ready in advance. We just made a few adjustments and released it." The team even added mention of the 10-point plan Iran proposed as part of its recent ceasefire agreement. As the video concludes, a Lego Trump sits next to the document, sobbing while holding a white flag and eating a taco -- a knowing reference to the acronym for "Trump always chickens out." Within hours of Trump's announcement, the video was published on Explosive Media's X account and Telegram channel, where it had the caption: "IRAN WON! The way to crush imperialism has been shown to the world. Trump Surrendered. TACO will always remain TACO." While the Trump administration has been posting memes that intercut war footage with movie clips that appeal to a narrow audience of loyal followers, Explosive Media's Lego videos have reached a much broader audience in the US -- some of whom clearly liked what they saw. "We've committed ourselves to learning more every day about American people and culture," the Explosive Media team member tells WIRED. "In this process, Americans themselves have been helping us -- and that support and guidance continues. They share impactful tips and ideas with us." Explosive Media began in 2025 as a YouTube channel featuring political commentary delivered by a young Iranian man. The content never gained traction, with most videos racking up only a couple hundred views. But all that changed in February, when the group began posting Lego-inspired videos, with the team scripting, producing, and editing each video using AI tools. (The group would not reveal which AI tools it was using.) The videos quickly took hold on platforms like TikTok, X, and Instagram. "People are disengaging from some of the real conflict content and looking for something that can distill what's happening quickly and in a language and tone that they understand and that's what those Lego videos are doing," Moustafa Ayad, a researcher with the Institute of Strategic Dialogue who has closely tracked the online content being shared by Iranian groups during the war, tells WIRED. "They're making it easily accessible to understand the conflict from Iran's point of view, and it's hitting on points of disaffection in the United States at the same time. It's working on two fronts." Iran has previously used Lego-style videos in war propaganda. Back in 2024, according to Ayad, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shared links to a Lego video, and during the Twelve-Day War in 2025, Iranian state media proclaimed victory over Israel in another Lego video. But none of those bore the sophistication or cultural insight of the videos currently being shared by Explosive Media. In one video, the group depicts Trump ordering the strikes on Iran after reviewing an "Epstein File" while standing alongside Satan and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In another, Iranian missiles bearing the names of everyone from Malcolm X to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein are shown being fired at the US. In a short video posted over the weekend, the group showed Trump holding up a victory sign while his behind was on fire. Many of the videos also feature catchy music including original rap tracks in English. The group has even set up its own Spotify page where it has posted the songs from the videos. The group claims that it is not associated with the Iranian regime, but its pro-regime stance, coupled with the fact it seemingly has Internet access in a country that is virtually cut off from the global Internet, may suggest otherwise. "Seeing as how the regime in Iran has effectively cut off the Internet to everyone else, I think you'd have to be pretty close to the government to have access to the Internet," says Ayad. The group told WIRED that it obtained Internet access because it was viewed as a media organization, claiming over 2.5 million followers on different "Iranian messaging channels." The Iranian regime has leveraged social media to push their side of the conflict to a non-Iranian audience, often combining AI and humor. After Trump warned Iranians that they would soon be "living in Hell" this week, the country's embassy in Zimbabwe posted on X suggesting they had lost the keys to the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian embassy in Tunisia posted an AI-video of Trump walking off Air Force One holding a large white flag. "All that stuff has been really demonstrating both Iranian capabilities to understand what American audiences gravitate towards and also a firm understanding how the Internet functions, especially social media platforms and what gets the most attention, what gets people re-sharing the content, engaging with the content," says Ayad. "And they've done that well with the Lego videos. I don't think there's another piece of media that has come out of this conflict that has been talked about, re-shared as much as the Lego videos." This story originally appeared on wired.com.

Inside the Pro-Iran Meme Machine Trolling Trump With AI Lego Cartoons

Minutes after President Donald Trump announced that he would not wipe out "a whole civilization" on Tuesday evening, a team of self-described young Iranian activists jumped into action. Members of the group known as Explosive Media were putting the finishing touches on their latest AI-generated, LEGO Movie-inspired Trump video. The video features a Trump figurine colluding with leaders from Gulf states, Iranian officials pressing a big red button labelled "back to the stone age," and Trump throwing a chair at US generals. This was the latest of more than a dozen videos the pro-Iran group has released since the beginning of the war in February, many of which have racked up millions of views on mainstream platforms. While Iranian government accounts have posted LEGO-style videos in the past, Explosive Media's content is more sophisticated, scripted, and produced by a team of young Iranians who appear deeply knowledgeable about the internet and American culture. Already, some critics have alleged the group has ties to the Iranian government. "We were almost certain Trump would back down, it was clear to us," a member of the Explosive Media team, who did not want to publicly identify themselves, tells WIRED. "We were prepared for this scenario and had content ready in advance. We just made a few adjustments and released it." The team even added mention of the 10-point plan Iran proposed as part of its decision to agree to a ceasefire. As the video concludes, a LEGO Trump is seen sitting next to the document, sobbing while holding a white flag and eating a taco -- a knowing reference to the acronym for "Trump always chickens out." Within hours of Trump's announcement, the video was ready and published on Explosive Media's X account and Telegram channel, where it had the caption: "IRAN WON! The way to crush imperialism has been shown to the world. Trump Surrendered. TACO will always remain TACO." While the Trump administration has been posting memes that intercut war footage with movie clips that appeal to a narrow audience of loyal followers, Explosive Media's LEGO videos have reached a much broader audience in the US -- some of whom clearly liked what they saw. "We've committed ourselves to learning more every day about American people and culture," the Explosive Media team member tells WIRED. "In this process, Americans themselves have been helping us -- and that support and guidance continues. They share impactful tips and ideas with us." Explosive Media began life in 2025 as a YouTube channel featuring political commentary delivered by a young Iranian man. The content never gained traction, with most videos racking up only a couple of hundred views. But all that changed in February, when the group began posting LEGO videos, with the team scripting, producing, and editing each video using AI tools. (The group would not reveal which AI tools it was using.) The videos quickly took hold on platforms like TikTok, X, and Instagram. "People are disengaging from some of the real conflict content and looking for something that can distill what's happening quickly and in a language and tone that they understand and that's what those LEGO videos are doing," Moustafa Ayad, a researcher with the Institute of Strategic Dialogue who has closely tracking the online content being shared by Iranian groups during the war, tells WIRED. "They're making it easily accessible to understand the conflict from Iran's point of view, and it's hitting on points of disaffection in the United States at the same time. It's working on two fronts."

The Iranian Lego AI video creators credit their virality to 'heart'

Donald Trump has spun the recent rescue of a downed airman whose fighter jet was destroyed behind Iranian borders as a resounding success. But the story is very different in one of the many viral, AI-generated Lego videos that have been produced by Iranian content creation group Explosive Media in the weeks since the US and Israel began dropping bombs on the country. In Explosive Media's music video take on how things played out, the US military is a joke for losing multiple planes and helicopters, and spending "$100 million just to save one guy." The video's shots of Lego jets exploding into $100 bills and golden coins reinforce the idea that the US is wasting taxpayer dollars just to be outmaneuvered by Iranian forces. And the accompanying AI-generated lyrics send a clear message about Iran being ready to do it all again if and when the US strikes next. Explosive Media's content plainly reads as propaganda. But the simplicity of its messaging has helped turn the group's videos to a viral phenomenon. The videos are being shared across the internet, and people -- many of them located within the US -- are praising them for the way they humiliate Trump and urge viewers to remember that before this war began, the Trump administration was busy downplaying the president's ties to Jeffrey Epstein. On TikTok, unofficial uploads of the videos have racked up thousands of comments from people cheering Explosive Media on and saying that their videos and surprisingly catchy AI songs are more informative than what's being reported by Western outlets. By playing into the public's disdain for Trump and his peers, groups like Explosive Media are helping Iran win a meme-fueled war of ideas and perceptions. And at a time when the White House has tried to present itself as having a deep understanding of how to shape online discourse, it seems very much like the Iranians have Trump outgunned. Explosive Media's official YouTube and Instagram pages were both recently taken down -- YouTube says that their videos violated the platform's policies regarding spam, deceptive practices, and scams. But it's not hard to find the group's AI-generated shorts lambasting the US and Israel's attacks on Iran. Even if you aren't keeping up with news about the war, you've probably seen some of Explosive Media's work while doomscrolling through X or TikTok. The way Explosive Media has been consistently putting out new videos almost every day that explicitly comment on recent events -- despite the internet blackout -- makes the group seem like it could be a large outfit with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' content creation machine. This would make the group an extension of the same governmental organization that turned Iran into an authoritarian theocracy in which political dissent has been violently repressed. But when I recently spoke with a member of the group via the Telegram channel linked in multiple Explosive Video accounts, they claimed that they are a team of about 10 people who are operating independently from Iranian state media. Explosive Media claims it sees maintaining its independence and being relatable to Gen Z (their peers) as important elements to achieving their larger goals. And the representative stressed that using Lego aesthetics to spread their message has been a key part of building a global audience. "Lego is a universal language," the Explosive Media member said. "It conveys messages easily, it's playful, it doesn't require extreme realism, yet it can include astonishing detail." Explosive Media's latest videos lean into dark, absurd comedy as they depict the US and Israel's heads of state as emotive minifigs. In one, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nervously draft a ceasefire request as the devil sits next to them with a grin on his face. After making fun of whatever is going on with Trump's hands and taking a beat to draw a comparison between the children killed by the US strike on an elementary school in Minab and Jeffrey Epstein's victims, the video cuts to a montage re-creating a number of the Iranian military's recent successful attacks. Another video is addressed directly to Pete Hegseth, and uses an AI-generated vocal track that sounds a lot like Macklemore to make fun of multiple scandalous allegations about the sitting defense secretary having a drinking problem and sexually assaulting women that have been leveled against him. It is immediately clear that Explosive Media's animations are made with AI. But their content feels different than most slop polluting the internet, and not just because the war is unpopular. Each video tells a cohesive story with clearly defined characters whose (general) visual consistency helps you follow their narrative arcs even if you aren't watching with the sound on. Explosive Media maintains a running list of potential concepts that could be turned into videos, but each project begins with a script, which is used to generate AI footage and an accompanying song before it is all merged together using post-production software. The member of Explosive Media I talked to explained that they are using generative AI "as a tool to present truths in a compelling way and to break through walls of censorship" that have negatively impacted the way people see Iranians. To the group, there is little difference between gen AI and any other kind of technology that "can be used for good or bad," and they see their videos as prime examples of how dynamic Iranian storytelling can be. "Western audiences have, for years, been fed distorted views of our nation by mainstream media," the representative told me, referring to the idea that Iran is an undeveloped, uneducated country. "When we release these animations, Western viewers are initially surprised that such work comes from Iran. That's when misconceptions start to shift -- and that's exactly what we aim for." Explosive Media's content is far more polished and, frankly, interesting to watch than any of the White House's trolling shitposts or the slop videos Trump regularly posts on his social feeds. But they are all reflections of the way that people are using AI-generated content to shape online discourse about serious real-world events. Part of what makes Explosive Media's videos feel more resonant is the fact that, in addition to making fun of the US and its allies, they are imploring you to see Iranians as people with very pointed senses of humor who are fighting back against foreign threats to their nation. By contrast, the White House has been using AI "memes" shared through official channels to punch down at its own population and make light of its draconian policies. When Trump posted a video of himself using a fighter jet to dump feces on No Kings protesters, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson insisted that the president was merely "using satire to make a point." The point seemed to be the explicit dehumanization of Trump's critics, which is one of the main reasons the US's meme content feels different from what's coming out of Iran. When I asked whether Explosive Media sees its content as being in conversation with the White House's social media posts, the representative said that they do not "compare [themselves] to those childish pieces" because "hands stained with innocent blood cannot create work that touches hearts." It's not just that Explosive Media's memes are more compelling -- they highlight the larger problems the White House has had communicating about this war at all. The US's messaging about why it's attacking Iran and how much devastation the war is truly causing has been incredibly muddled. When Trump insisted to CBS last month that the US and Israel's bombardment of Iran was "very complete, pretty much," he was lying. The very same day in a separate speech, Trump said the US would "not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated," adding that the war "could go further." Since then, the conflict has raged on, Trump has threatened the whole of Iranian civilization with death, and a tenuous ceasefire has reportedly been violated by Israeli forces. The White House's lack of transparency throughout the war has made it all but impossible to take anything said by governmental officials like Hegseth at face value. Hegseth has repeatedly overstated the effectiveness of the US's operations against Iran, and the Pentagon has been accused of drastically underreporting military deaths and injuries. As much as Explosive Media is trying to speak to ordinary people who might not think of themselves as being directly connected to the US's participation in this war, the group also sees its current popularity as a teachable moment that larger, more established media organizations should be paying close attention to. The lesson here, the group's representative insisted, is that legacy news organizations have a duty to "let the world hear the voice of the people" -- especially those who are young and fighting for their lives. But there are other things to take away from Explosive Media catapulting itself into the spotlight using gen AI. The group and others like it are crafting polished pieces of propaganda that are designed to speak directly to people outside of Iran (where The Lego Movie was never theatrically screened) using a familiar and accessible visual language. The videos' playfulness and creativity have made them exactly the kind of content that thrives on social media platforms. And they make the US government's sloppy attempts at controlling online narratives about this war feel slipshod at best.

Pro-Iran groups have used AI to troll Trump and try to control the war narrative

Pro-Iran groups have used artificial intelligence to create slick internet memes in English to try to shape the narrative during the war against the U.S. and Israel and foster opposition to it. Analysts say the memes appear to be coming from groups linked to the government in Tehran and are part of a strategy of leveraging its limited resources to inflict damage on the U.S., even indirectly. That includes how Iran has used attacks and threats to control the flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and maintain a stranglehold on the world's economy. A ceasefire raised hopes Wednesday of halting hostilities, but many issues remained unresolved. "This is a propaganda war for them," Neil Lavie-Driver, an AI researcher at the University of Cambridge, said, referring to Iran. "Their goal is to sow enough discontent with the conflict as to eventually force the West to cave in, so it is massively important to them." It's not the first time memes have been used in a conflict, and they have evolved to include AI images in recent years. AI imagery bombarded Ukrainians after the Russian invasion in 2022. Last year, the term "AI slop" became widely used to describe the glut of imperfect images posted online during the Israel-Iran war to try to destroy the country's nuclear program. In the conflict that began Feb. 28 with joint U.S.-Israel strikes, the memes have used well-honed cartoons that lambast U.S. officials. The memes are fluent not just in English but in American culture and trolling. Published on various social platforms, they are racking up millions of views -- though it's not clear how much influence they have had. They have portrayed U.S. President Donald Trump as old, out of step and internationally isolated. They have referenced bruising on the back of Trump's right hand that prompted speculation about his health; infighting in Trump's MAGA base; and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's fiery confirmation hearing, among other things. "They're using popular culture against the No. 1 pop culture country, the United States," said Nancy Snow, a scholar who has written more than a dozen books on propaganda. The pro-Iran images circulating online include a series that uses the style of the "Lego" animated movies. In one, an Iranian military commander raps, "You thought you ran the globe, sitting on your throne. Now we turning every base into a bed of stone," as Trump falls into a bullseye built of "Epstein files," the U.S. government's investigative records on disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The animations show levels of sophistication and internet access that indicate ties to government offices, said Mahsa Alimardani, a director of WITNESS, a human-rights group working on AI video evidence. "If you're able to have the bandwidth needed to generate content like that and upload it, you are officially or unofficially cooperating with the regime," she said -- pointing to severe restrictions Iran has imposed on the internet as part of a crackdown on nationwide protests earlier this year. State media has reposted some of the memes, including some from the account behind the "Lego"-style videos, Akhbar Enfejari, which means Explosive News. Akhbar Enfejari described themselves as Iranians producing and uploading from within Iran in an effort to disrupt decades-long dominance of Western control of the airwaves. "They've long dominated the media landscape and, through that power, imposed narratives on many nations," the group told The Associated Press on the messaging app Telegram. "But this time, something feels different. This time, we've disrupted the game. This time, we're doing it better." After the ceasefire was announced, Akhbar Enfejari posted: "IRAN WON! The way to crush imperialism has been shown to the world. Trump Surrendered." In addition to the memes coming from pro-Iran groups, Iranian government accounts have trolled the U.S., including in a post Wednesday from Iran's Embassy in South Africa that said, "Say hello to the new world superpower," with a picture of the Iranian flag. Both the U.S. and Iran declared victory after agreeing to a ceasefire. Analysts say the deep grasp of U.S. politics and culture is the fruit of more old-school methods of propaganda: a decades-long Iranian government program to promote narratives against the U.S. and Israel. "This meme war comes from institutions that are very aware what the American public is aware of and pop cultural references that can appeal to them," Alimardani said. Analysts say the U.S. and Israel do not appear to be engaging in the same kind of campaign -- and given the restrictions Iran has put on internet access in the country, getting such messages to ordinary Iranians would be difficult. Early in the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video that used AI to make it seem like he was speaking in Farsi, in which he urged Iranians to overthrow their government. The White House has published a steady stream of memes, but those are aimed at a U.S. audience and feature clips from American TV shows and sports. The U.S. government-run Voice of America, which for decades beamed news reports to many countries that had no tradition of a free press, does still broadcast in Farsi, though it is has been operating with a skeleton staff since Trump ordered it shut down. "This world order is really changing overnight and the U.S. is not going to end up necessarily as the state that everybody listens to," Snow said.

Iran war: We spoke to the man making Lego-style AI videos that experts say are powerful propaganda

At first glance they look like they could be scenes out of a Lego movie, although more vivid and fast-paced. But these viral AI videos inspired by the instantly recognisable Lego aesthetic feature dying children, fighter jets and US President Donald Trump - and are in fact pro-Iran propaganda. For our new BBC podcast, Top Comment, we spoke to a representative of Explosive Media, one of the key accounts generating these clips. He wanted us to refer to him as Mr Explosive. He's a savvy social media operator who initially denies working for the Iranian government. In previous interviews the outlet has said it is "totally independent". But upon further questioning, Mr Explosive admits the regime is a "customer" - something he's never before confirmed publicly. The overriding message of these videos is that Iran is resisting what it sees as an almighty global oppressor: the United States. The clips are garish and not subtle at all - but that hasn't put a dent in how vigorously people are sharing and commenting on them. In one of the videos, Donald Trump falls through a whirlwind of "Epstein file" documents as rap lyrics tell us "the secrets are leaking, the pressure is rising". In another, George Floyd can be seen under a policeman's boot as we hear Iran is "standing here for everyone your system ever wronged". "Slopaganda" - coined in an academic paper last year as a play on 'AI slop' - is too weak a term to capture how powerful this "highly sophisticated" content is, says leading propaganda expert Dr Emma Briant. AI-generated propaganda clips are estimated to have been viewed hundreds of millions of times over the course of the war. In our video call with Mr Explosive, he appears silhouetted and flanked by red and green light, the colours of the Iranian flag. On his desk there's a green-feathered helmet associated with the Shia warrior Husayn ibn Ali, who features in several of their videos. He says his team at Explosive Media consists of fewer than ten people who use Lego-style graphics "because it is a world language". Iranian and Russian state media accounts on X regularly share them to millions of followers. We ask Mr Explosive why the Epstein files feature so heavily in his videos. He says it's to show the audience the "kind of confrontation they are witnessing" between Iran - which is "seeking truth and freedom" - against "those who associate themselves with cannibals". This is a reference to the theory that the Epstein files link the Trump administration to cannibalism - a claim for which there is no credible evidence. The videos are also littered with factual inaccuracies - so we ask Mr Explosive about them. In one clip, the Iranian military is shown capturing a downed US fighter-jet pilot. US officials have confirmed the downed airman - who was stranded in a remote, mountainous region of Iran after his aircraft was shot down - was rescued by US special forces on 4 April. Mr Explosive does not accept this, saying: "Possibly there was no lost pilot, there was no rescue operation. Their main goal was to steal uranium from Iran." When we push back - citing US officials who say the airman is now receiving treatment in Kuwait - he claims: "Only 13% of what Mr Trump says is based on facts." Explosive Media's airman video has successfully amplified this alternative narrative among English-speaking audiences. One partisan US-based TikTok influencer - @newswithsteph - told her viewers the Lego videos had been "shockingly accurate so far; they broke the story about the recent US pilot mission that wasn't a rescue mission at all but a special ops mission for uranium". AI has enabled Iran and others to communicate directly with Western audiences more effectively than ever before, Briant says. They are using tools largely trained on Western data, making them ideal for creating "culturally appropriate" content. This is what "authoritarian countries wanting to target the West have lacked in the past". Dr Tine Munk, a cyber warfare expert at Nottingham Trent University, characterises Iran's tactics as "defensive memetic warfare" which the creators see as necessary to combat US rhetoric. Explosive Media videos first appeared in early 2025 - but their popularity has grown enormously in the wake of the US-Iran war. The Lego-style clips are also becoming increasingly detailed, showing highly specific Gulf locations including power stations, airports and industrial sites being totally destroyed by Iranian missiles. In reality, most have only sustained limited damage. The videos are often produced in "real time" and appear quickly after major developments in the war. One video about the ceasefire agreement was published before any official announcements. Thousands of people have been killed in Iran, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries, according to officials in these nations. The current conflict started in February after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran. After some back-and-forth in our conversation, Mr Explosive admits the Iranian government is indeed a "customer" of his company. In earlier Instagram messages, he'd told us his operation had been directly commissioned for multiple projects by Iranian officials. Before the outbreak of the war this year, thousands of protesters were killed in a brutal crackdown by the regime. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana) reports a death toll of at least 7,000 civilians. But Mr Explosive defends his team's relationship with the government saying it was "honourable to work for the homeland". He dismisses the recent mass protests as a "coup" funded by President Trump. Mr Explosive also rejects allegations we put to him his videos use antisemitic tropes. "Our videos are not antisemitic; our videos are anti-Zionist," he says. Defending the depiction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drinking blood, he says such imagery highlights the "atrocities committed by him". Most Iranians are unable to use the internet due to a nationwide internet shutdown. Mr Explosive claims he could contact the BBC using "journalist internet" granted by the Iranian government. Iran is consistently ranked as one of the most repressive countries in the world for press freedom. Social media platforms have been shutting down accounts with the Lego-style videos, but new ones seem to pop up just as quickly. It's a form of agile, aggressive internet diplomacy that appears to be here to stay, according to Munk. Crucially, she adds, it's "cutting out the middlemen, cutting out the press, the mass media, and constantly circulating memes. "Traditional diplomacy doesn't exist here. And it blurs our understanding of what is happening. But it also increases the risk of misinterpretation and escalation. "So we are in a kind of limbo."

AI-savvy pro-Iran groups troll America with Lego Movie-style propaganda videos mocking American failure | Fortune

Pro-Iran groups have used artificial intelligence to create slick internet memes in English to try to shape the narrative during the war against the U.S. and Israel and foster opposition to it. Analysts say the memes appear to be coming from groups linked to the government in Tehran and are part of a strategy of leveraging its limited resources to inflict damage on the U.S., even indirectly. That includes how Iran has used attacks and threats to control the flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and maintain a stranglehold on the world's economy. A ceasefire raised hopes Wednesday of halting hostilities, but many issues remained unresolved. "This is a propaganda war for them," Neil Lavie-Driver, an AI researcher at the University of Cambridge, said, referring to Iran. "Their goal is to sow enough discontent with the conflict as to eventually force the West to cave in, so it is massively important to them." It's not the first time memes have been used in a conflict, and they have evolved to include AI images in recent years. AI imagery bombarded Ukrainians after the Russian invasion in 2022. Last year, the term "AI slop" became widely used to describe the glut of imperfect images posted online during the Israel-Iran war to try to destroy the country's nuclear program. In the conflict that began Feb. 28 with joint U.S.-Israel strikes, the memes have used well-honed cartoons that lambast U.S. officials. The memes are fluent not just in English but in American culture and trolling. Published on various social platforms, they are racking up millions of views -- though it's not clear how much influence they have had. They have portrayed U.S. President Donald Trump as old, out of step and internationally isolated. They have referenced bruising on the back of Trump's right hand that prompted speculation about his health; infighting in Trump's MAGA base; and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's fiery confirmation hearing, among other things. "They're using popular culture against the No. 1 pop culture country, the United States," said Nancy Snow, a scholar who has written more than a dozen books on propaganda. The pro-Iran images circulating online include a series that uses the style of the "Lego" animated movies. In one, an Iranian military commander raps, "You thought you ran the globe, sitting on your throne. Now we turning every base into a bed of stone," as Trump falls into a bullseye built of "Epstein files," the U.S. government's investigative records on disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The animations show levels of sophistication and internet access that indicate ties to government offices, said Mahsa Alimardani, a director of WITNESS, a human-rights group working on AI video evidence. "If you're able to have the bandwidth needed to generate content like that and upload it, you are officially or unofficially cooperating with the regime," she said -- pointing to severe restrictions Iran has imposed on the internet as part of a crackdown on nationwide protests earlier this year. State media has reposted some of the memes, including some from the account behind the "Lego"-style videos, Akhbar Enfejari, which means Explosive News. Akhbar Enfejari described themselves as Iranians producing and uploading from within Iran in an effort to disrupt decades-long dominance of Western control of the airwaves. "They've long dominated the media landscape and, through that power, imposed narratives on many nations," the group told The Associated Press on the messaging app Telegram. "But this time, something feels different. This time, we've disrupted the game. This time, we're doing it better." After the ceasefire was announced, Akhbar Enfejari posted: "IRAN WON! The way to crush imperialism has been shown to the world. Trump Surrendered." In addition to the memes coming from pro-Iran groups, Iranian government accounts have trolled the U.S., including in a post Wednesday from Iran's Embassy in South Africa that said, "Say hello to the new world superpower," with a picture of the Iranian flag. Both the U.S. and Iran declared victory after agreeing to a ceasefire. Analysts say the deep grasp of U.S. politics and culture is the fruit of more old-school methods of propaganda: a decades-long Iranian government program to promote narratives against the U.S. and Israel. "This meme war comes from institutions that are very aware what the American public is aware of and pop cultural references that can appeal to them," Alimardani said. Analysts say the U.S. and Israel do not appear to be engaging in the same kind of campaign -- and given the restrictions Iran has put on internet access in the country, getting such messages to ordinary Iranians would be difficult. Early in the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video that used AI to make it seem like he was speaking in Farsi, in which he urged Iranians to overthrow their government. The White House has published a steady stream of memes, but those are aimed at a U.S. audience and feature clips from American TV shows and sports. The U.S. government-run Voice of America, which for decades beamed news reports to many countries that had no tradition of a free press, does still broadcast in Farsi, though it is has been operating with a skeleton staff since Trump ordered it shut down. "This world order is really changing overnight and the U.S. is not going to end up necessarily as the state that everybody listens to," Snow said.

Truth or Fake - YouTube bans viral pro-Iran AI-generated LEGO videos trolling Trump

As the 'meme war' between the US and Iran continues via AI 'slopaganda,' an Iran-linked group named Explosive Media has been pumping out viral LEGO-style videos ridiculing the US war effort in Iran, and trolling President Donald Trump. Many of these videos depict Trump as childish and fickle, accuse him of having started the war to distract from his ties to Jeff Epstein, and have gained an audience of hundreds of millions online. Recently, after a LEGO-style video claimed "Iran won" last week, YouTube banned Explosive Media's channel, suspending it for violent content and "violating its Spam, deceptive practices and scams policies." It prompted a reaction from Tehran's Foreign Ministry, which accused YouTube for "suppressing the truth" and "shielding the US administration's false narrative from any competing voice." The rest of Explosive Media's other accounts on Meta platforms, X and Tiktok appear unaffected for the moment. Since the Middle East war, Iran has really leaned into using artificial intelligence to push its side of this war to a non-Iranian audience, often using American references and satire to flood the internet. But who are the Explosive Media group? A representative for the group told the BBC the team consists of less than ten people, and admitted the Iranian government is one of their clients, despite having previously claimed to be independent. Vedika Bahl goes through Tehran's criticism of this new YouTube suspension, and what we know of the group behind these viral AI-generated propaganda clips in this episode of Truth or Fake.

Lego-style memes troll Trump after fragile US-Iran truce

Washington (United States) (AFP) - Shortly after news of a US-Iran ceasefire, an Iranian group released a new Lego-style video lampooning President Donald Trump and declaring "Iran won," the latest in a wave of war-themed AI-generated propaganda flooding the internet. Explosive Media, a group of pro-Iran creators that describes itself as independent but is widely suspected of government ties, has produced a series of such videos that have racked up millions of views during the conflict. "The way to crush imperialism has been shown to the world. Trump surrendered. IRAN WON," read the caption of its video on X after the two-week ceasefire agreement was announced on Tuesday. "TACO will always remain TACO," it added, referring to the acronym "Trump always chickens out." The ceasefire -- already showing signs of strain -- followed a series of apocalyptic threats from Trump, including his warning that he would take Iran back into the "Stone Age." With dramatic background music, the video depicts a Trump-like toy figure huddling with Arab leaders, hurling a chair at US military figures, while Iranian generals press a red button with the label "Back to the Stone Age," unleashing a torrent of destruction across the Middle East. Another clip on X depicted Trump -- caricatured with an oversized yellow head and a flaming backside -- holding a sign that read: "VICTORY! I am a loser." 'Age of AI slop' Explosive Media, whose videos often tap into American popular culture, has portrayed Trump as old, isolated, and prone to childish tantrums, seemingly disconnected from reality. Iranian state media and diplomatic accounts have leaned into their strategy, regularly posting similar so-called AI slop -- mass-produced content created by cheap artificial intelligence tools. "Iran has crafted a wartime propaganda strategy tailored for the age of AI slop and algorithmic amplification," Joseph Bodnar, a senior research manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told AFP. "They are playing to the AI aesthetics and hyperbolic anti-imperialist narratives that draw attention, spark controversy and get rewarded by platforms." In recent weeks, viral meme videos have depicted fictional Iranian military victories, world leaders in subservient scenarios -- dependent on Iranian leaders for oil -- and even the strategic Strait of Hormuz reimagined as a cartoonish toll booth. "It is clear that Iran is putting out content that resonates," Bodnar said. The English-language content of Explosive Media, which describes itself as an "Iranian Lego-style animation team," appears aimed at audiences outside Iran, where platforms like X have been blocked for years and are only accessible via VPN. With Iranians facing what monitor Netblocks calls an "internet blackout," the ability of Explosive Media to produce and upload slick content has fueled suspicion of government ties. The group rejected the claim on X as a "media distortion." Meme battlefield The White House's X account has meanwhile posted its own war-themed content -- combining battlefield footage with clips from films such as "Iron Man," "Gladiator" and "Top Gun." The content highlights an internet meme battlefield that has blurred the line between propaganda and entertainment. And while the Trump administration used AI-generated content in its social media strategy well before the war, the virality of Explosive Media's clips suggests it may be contending on the digital front, experts say. The group is "beating the Trump administration at its own game," said Nina Jankowicz, chief executive of the American Sunlight Project. "The immature humor, the polarizing rhetoric, the idea of 'owning' opponents, and the clicks-at-whatever-cost strategy that Trump and allies have employed is now being mobilized against it."