A sophisticated, years-long digital influence campaign has weaponized anti-Muslim conspiracy theories across 30 countries, utilizing over 800 million advertising exposures to manipulate political discourse.
The operation, which investigators link to entities based in Israel, specifically targeted Qatar and high-profile figures like the Princess of Wales to fuel far-right narratives.
The investigation, published recently, reveals that the campaign operated as a sprawling, multi-million-pound machinery of disinformation. Researchers Marc Owen Jones and Sohan Dsouza tracked an influence operation from October 2023 through October 2026, documenting how anonymous actors funneled millions into social media platforms to promote the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.
The Weaponization of Public Figures
The campaign’s reach was not confined to political fringe sites. In a calculated effort to influence British public sentiment, the operation targeted Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales.
In an anonymous campaign portraying Qatar as a threat to Britain, Facebook users were served advertisements featuring the Princess, urging her to avoid meeting the emir. Some graphics equated the encounter to “meeting Bin Laden,” a tactic designed to exploit royal imagery to validate xenophobic sentiment.
This was far from an isolated incident. The operation systematically replaced the traditional antisemitic trope of George Soros with a new target: Qatar. By casting Qatar as the hidden force behind European “Islamisation,” the campaign sought to provide a digestible, albeit false, narrative for its audience.
The report noted that the operation produced parody content, such as a “Grand Theft Qatar” video, which depicted the Emirate purchasing European landmarks and converting them into mosques. Other AI-generated content included a rendition of “Rule, Britannia!” featuring flags of the Muslim Brotherhood over iconic London institutions. A series titled "Cities Stories" targeted various international locations, while its UK-focused episode centered on Bradford, claiming the city was being occupied.
Global Scope and Financial Scale
The scale of the operation suggests substantial financial backing. While researchers could not definitively attribute the campaign to the Israeli government, they noted the entities involved are based in Israel and possess clear ties to influence operations previously associated with the Israeli state. Investigators traced initial operations to Israel through Vietnamese proxy companies before the campaign shifted to using Brazilian corporate entities.
| Metric | Reported Data |
|---|---|
| Total Ad Exposures | ~800 million |
| Total Ad Spend (Est.) | £6.12 million |
| Primary US Exposure | 100 million |
| Meta Expenditure (Phase 1) | £900,000 – £1.2 million |
Platforms Removed Racist Ads That Soon Returned
The investigation highlights a persistent failure in moderation by major tech companies. Meta, YouTube, and TikTok have faced scrutiny for hosting racist content that often lacked mandatory political advertising labels. Meta removed most of the accounts eventually, but the advertising came back under new names, and we recorded another 64 adverts and promoted videos aimed at Britain in a later wave, from October 2025. That may sound like a small number, but they were shown more than 25 million times.
Researchers identified 1,473 Facebook ads, 189 YouTube videos, 359 TikTok advertisements, and 105 TikTok account videos. A review of 406 comments on Facebook advertisements targeting UK audiences in 2024 found that 61% expressed support for Islamophobic views. Sunder Katwala, director of the thinktank British Future, noted that these artificial online campaigns are increasingly skewing the perception of public belief.
“Views of media and political elites are curiously hardening more than those of the public, in part because social media is skewing elite misperceptions of what the public believes,” Katwala observed.
Geopolitical Consequences
Beyond the immediate inflammatory rhetoric, the operation has played a role in shaping electoral environments. The timing of the advertising surges often aligned with national electoral calendars, including the months leading up to the 2024 European Parliament elections and the UK general election. The Qatari Foreign Ministry has denounced the allegations as a “disinformation campaign.”
As the campaign remains active in nations preparing for major 2027 elections, the question remains whether international regulators will move to implement stricter transparency requirements for social media advertising. In a statement, CAIR said: “This important investigation reveals the dark underbelly of transnational disinformation, showing how anti-Muslim bigotry and the xenophobic ‘Great Replacement’ conspiracy theory are systematically manufactured and bankrolled to achieve geopolitical goals.”
