Report Exposes Paid Campaign Promoting Racist and Anti-Qatar Views

Scale and Scope of the Operation

The study details a massive digital disinformation effort. Researchers Marc Owen Jones and Sohan Dsouza call it one of the largest documented influence operations. The campaign targeted 30 nations, including the US, Europe, and Lebanon. It ran from October 2023 to October 2026.

Ad Placement and Election Timing

The ads appeared on YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. They generated 533 million impressions. Ad buys stopped just before key elections. In France, ads ran before the June 2024 European Parliament vote. In the UK, buying ceased days before the general election announcement. The campaign remains active in France and Italy ahead of 2027 elections.

Geographic Distribution and Conspiracy Narratives

Europe accounted for one-third of all placements. The UK recorded the highest impressions at 154 million. The US followed with 100 million. Jones noted the ads pushed the „Great Replacementtheory. Qatar was cast as a hidden power driving Muslim migration to ”IslamizeEurope. This mirrors antisemitic tropes about George Soros.

Evidence of Israeli Origins

One TikTok campaign promoted regime change in Iran. Ads started four days before the US and Israel launched the war. Metadata suggests the operation originated in Israel. Video editors worked in the Israeli time zone. File names and folders were in Hebrew. The report concludes with moderate to high confidence that Israel initiated the effort.

Qatar as a Target

Qatar faced multiple Israel-linked campaigns. Haaretz found Israeli experts ran a secret campaign against Doha after October 7. Former PM Naftali Bennett called for declaring Qatar an enemy state. The Likud party accused Doha of interfering in Israeli elections. Qatar's Foreign Minister condemned this as a disinformation campaign.