Following recent U.S. and Israeli military strikes against Iran, a fabricated video showing crowds watching flames and debris fall from a burning skyscraper allegedly in Bahrain gained widespread circulation online.
Users on social platforms claimed the footage showed damage from an Iranian missile attack on the building. However, experts determined the video was artificially created using AI technology and distributed by Iranian government-linked accounts to exaggerate the nation’s military achievements.
Several telltale signs revealed the video’s artificial nature, including two vehicles that appeared fused together on the left side of the frame and a person whose arm passed through a backpack unnaturally.
Since the Iran conflict erupted last weekend, numerous fake and misleading videos have flooded online platforms, driven largely by government-sponsored propaganda campaigns focused on portraying battlefield victories and inflating casualty numbers.
“The content that’s coming from state actors tends to be a little better targeted,” explained Melanie Smith, senior director of policy and research on information operations at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. “They have a very clear kind of narrative structure and the videos are just used to support some kind of statement they want to make about the conflict and about the kind of geopolitical situation writ large.”
Iranian-aligned social media profiles have promoted stories that overstate the damage and death counts from their nation’s military operations, echoing themes found in Iran’s official state broadcasting. This messaging strategy has resulted in numerous computer-generated videos depicting fictional airstrikes, similar to the bogus Bahrain tower footage.
A continuing Russian-connected disinformation campaign known as Operation Overload, sometimes called Matryoshka or Storm-1679, has been distributing videos that falsely represent intelligence services and media organizations. The operation aims to create fear and uncertainty to influence public behavior, using methods previously employed during electoral periods. One example included a fabricated warning supposedly from Israeli intelligence advising Israeli citizens in Germany and America to avoid public spaces or remain indoors entirely.
While false and manipulated videos have appeared during other recent military conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars, researchers note a significant difference in the current situation: limited information flowing from Iranian citizens due to internet blackouts and widespread censorship, eliminating perspectives that might have supported or contradicted the Iranian government’s narrative.
“In Ukraine, that message was so full-throated it really changed the entire dynamic of the conflict because the world really aligned with the perspective of Ukrainians facing the attacks and showing resilience in light of the attacks, but we’re sort of missing that story from Iran,” said Todd Helmus, a senior behavioral scientist at RAND who studies irregular warfare, terrorism and information operations.
Beyond state-sponsored efforts, opportunistic social media users seeking viral content have significantly contributed to the misinformation surrounding the Iran war’s initial days, sharing outdated footage from previous conflicts as current events, posting video game sequences as authentic combat footage, and creating their own AI-generated material.
Artificial intelligence technology has enabled misinformation campaigns impossible during earlier conflicts, even those occurring just years ago. Combined with government-sponsored false information and media restrictions, this creates an even larger void where accurate information becomes difficult to identify.
“The volume of AI content is starting to just pollute the information environment in these kinds of crisis settings to a really terrifying degree,” Smith noted. “The inability to get access to verified and credible information in times like this — it’s getting harder and harder to do that.”
Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, announced Tuesday that the platform would remove users from its revenue-sharing program for posting AI-generated conflict content without proper labeling. Initial violations result in 90-day suspensions, with permanent bans for repeat offenses. Emerson Brooking, director of strategy and resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, cautioned that social media platforms now serve as battlegrounds in modern warfare, and users should recognize their potential exploitation by government actors, regardless of their physical distance from actual combat zones.
“If you’re in these spaces, just understand that this is an extension of the physical battle space,” he warned. “That there are actors on all sides of the conflict that are actively trying to spread propaganda and disinformation to convince you that certain things are true that aren’t. That your eyeballs and your attention are an asset.”
