A years-long, paid-for influence operation promoting racist, Islamophobic and anti-Qatar views has been uncovered by two academics, with the evidence suggesting the campaign was intended to serve Israeli interests.
asserted
campaign → pay → interests
The investigation, which took three years, was published on Thursday.
asserted
which → take → Thursday
It detailed an operation that likely cost more than $11m and was carried out across 30 countries, including in Europe, the United States and Lebanon.
asserted
that → detail → Europe
Recommended Stories
list of 3 items- list 1 of 3UK charities, protest groups: Israeli ban threat ‘will not intimidate us’
asserted
list → intimidate → us
- list 2 of 3Huckabee blames ‘biblical illiteracy’ for waning support for Israel in US
- list 3 of 3Israel’s anti-Qatar campaign bleeds into elections
asserted
campaign → blame → elections
As part of the campaign, several million internet users were exposed to advertisements on sites like YouTube, TikTok and Facebook that pushed an agenda, according to the report titled Manufacturing the “Great Replacement”.
uncertain
that → expose → report
Marc Owen Jones, a professor at Northwestern University’s Doha campus, and independent researcher Sohan Dsouza, the academics who published the report, called it “perhaps one of the biggest digital influence and disinformation operations ever documented”.
asserted
who → publish → operations
Their report uncovered at least 533 million exposures of social media advertisements promoting anti-Muslim, anti-migrant, racist and anti-Qatar views between October 2023 and October 2026.
asserted
report → uncover → October
It added that the advertisements were launched ahead of elections in some of the target countries.
asserted
advertisements → add → countries
One example, also reported by French newspaper Le Monde, looked at how the campaign had targeted France and found that “a historical analysis of the ads pushed by the campaign’s backers suggests that they repeatedly sought to align with national electoral calendars”, the newspaper said.
uncertain
newspaper → report → calendars
“Buying in France ran through the months before the June 2024 European Parliament elections, and UK buying stopped on 17 May 2024, days before the general election was called,” the researchers said.
uncertain
researchers → buy → May
“Its sustained promotion of anti-Muslim and anti-migrant narratives raises concerns about attempts to shape the political environment ahead of these votes, beyond the formal election campaign period,” they added.
asserted
they → raise → period
Additionally, the report warned that “the campaign remains active in countries approaching major elections, including France and Italy in 2027”.
asserted
campaign → warn → 2027
Qatar targeted
France accounted for about a third of the total number of advertisement placements, the highest share among the countries targeted, the report said.
asserted
report → target → countries
Meanwhile, the advertisements recorded the largest number of exposures in the United Kingdom, at 154 million.
asserted
advertisements → record → million
The US came second, with 100 million.
asserted
US → come → million
“In Europe, the ads use the structure of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, that white people are being replaced by immigrants,” Jones said.
asserted
Jones → use → immigrants
“Qatar takes the role that anti-Semitic versions give to George Soros: a hidden power directing Muslim immigration to ‘Islamise’ Europe,” he noted, referring to the Jewish billionaire philanthropist and frequent target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
asserted
he → take → theories
Separately, one of the campaigns that appeared on TikTok promoted regime change in Iran to audiences in Europe.
asserted
that → appear → Europe
The ads first began running on February 24, four days before the US and Israel launched their war on the country, the investigation found.
asserted
investigation → begin → country
According to the report, the evidence suggests with “moderate to high confidence” that the influence operation was launched from within Israel and sought to portray Qatar as the driving force behind mass migration meant to allegedly “Islamise” Europe.
uncertain
operation → accord → Europe
The researchers said metadata shows that video editors working on the campaign did so in the Israeli time zone.
asserted
editors → say → zone
It also reveals that they used machines with Hebrew drive and folder names.
asserted
they → reveal → names
Qatar has been the focus of Israeli-linked campaigns before.
asserted
Qatar → link → campaigns
Last month, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz found that a group of Israeli influence experts and political advisers had worked on a secret campaign targeting Doha in the weeks after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks.
asserted
group → find → attacks
Israeli politicians have also lashed out at Qatar several times in recent years, with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett calling for the country to be declared an enemy state.
asserted
country → lash → years
Most recently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party accused Doha, without evidence, of interfering in Israeli elections held on Tuesday.
asserted
party → accuse → Tuesday
The Qatari Foreign Ministry has denounced the allegations as a “disinformation campaign”.
asserted
Ministry → denounce → campaign
The Aporia
