When Virality Is The Message: The New Age of AI Propaganda

Photo-Illustration by TIME Source Images by Andrew Harnik—Getty Images, Ronen Zvulun—AFP/Getty Images, U.S. Navy/Getty Images, Jakub Porzycki—NurPhoto/Getty Images

TIME Magazine / Renee DiResta
Welcome to the world of AI-driven propaganda. In March 2026, AI-generated videos depicting American President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as LEGO minifigures began flooding social media. Some were set to original rap tracks with surprisingly catchy hooks, likely also AI-generated. They told stories of the horrors of war: little shoes and a plastic backpack near rubble evoked the bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' school in Minab, Iran. Some connected the war to Trump’s ties to the convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. They mockingly evoked the brutal defeat of American forces, with LEGO toy soldiers walking into rivers of blood, or returning home in tiny caskets draped in American flags.

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