Report reveals campaign promoting racist, Islamophobic, anti-Qatar views

Investigation finds that years-long operation sought to portray Qatar as driving force behind mass migration to Europe.

Several million internet users were exposed to adverts on sites like YouTube, TikTok and Facebook [Photo Illustration by Chris McGrath/Getty Images]

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.

The investigation, which took three years, was published on 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.

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As part of the campaign, several million internet users were exposed to adverts on sites like YouTube, TikTok and Facebook that pushed an agenda, according to the report titled Manufacturing the “Great Replacement” .

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”.

Their report uncovered at least 533 million exposures of social media adverts promoting anti-Muslim, anti-migrant, racist and anti-Qatar views between October 2023 and October 2026. It added that the adverts were launched ahead of elections in some of the target 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.

“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.

“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.

Additionally, the report warned that “the campaign remains active in countries approaching major elections, including France and Italy in 2027”.

France accounted for about a third of the total number of ad placements, the highest share among the countries targeted, the report said. Meanwhile, the ads recorded the largest number of exposures in the United Kingdom, at 154 million. The US came second, with 100 million.

“In Europe, the ads use the structure of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, that white people are being replaced by immigrants,” Jones said.

“Qatar takes the role that antisemitic versions give to George Soros: a hidden power directing Muslim immigration to ‘Islamise’ Europe,” he noted.

Separately, one of the campaigns that appeared on TikTok promoted regime change in Iran to audiences in Europe. The ads first began running on February 24, four days before the United States and Israel launched their war on the country, the investigation found.

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.

The researchers said metadata shows that video editors working on the campaign did so in the Israeli time zone. It also reveals that they used machines with Hebrew drive and folder names.

Qatar has been the focus of Israeli-linked campaigns before. 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.

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.

Most recently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party accused Doha, without evidence, of interfering in Israeli elections held on Tuesday. The Qatari Foreign Ministry has denounced the allegations as a “disinformation campaign” .

调查发现，这项持续多年的行动旨在将卡塔尔描绘成欧洲大规模移民背后的驱动力量。

数百万互联网用户在 YouTube、TikTok 和 Facebook 等网站上接触到了广告。[图片由 Chris McGrath/Getty Images 提供]

两名学者揭露了一项持续数年、有偿的影响力行动，该行动旨在宣传种族主义、仇视伊斯兰教和反卡塔尔的观点，证据表明该行动旨在服务于以色列的利益。

这项历时三年的调查于周四公布。调查详细描述了一项可能耗资超过1100万美元、横跨30个国家（包括欧洲、美国和黎巴嫩）的行动。

英国三家慈善机构和抗议团体之一：以色列的禁令威胁“吓不倒我们”

列表 2/3：哈克比将美国民众对以色列支持率下降归咎于“圣经知识匮乏”

以色列反卡塔尔运动蔓延至选举（共3条，此为第3条）

据题为《制造“大替换”》的报告称，作为该活动的一部分，数百万互联网用户在 YouTube、TikTok 和 Facebook 等网站上接触到了宣传某种议程的广告。

西北大学多哈分校教授马克·欧文·琼斯和独立研究员索汉·德索萨（该报告的作者）称其为“有史以来记录在案的最大规模的数字影响和虚假信息行动之一”。

他们的报告揭露，在 2023 年 10 月至 2026 年 10 月期间，至少有 5.33 亿次社交媒体广告曝光，这些广告宣扬反穆斯林、反移民、种族主义和反卡塔尔的观点。报告还指出，这些广告在一些目标国家的选举前夕推出。

法国《世界报》也报道了一个例子，该报研究了这场运动如何针对法国，并发现“对该运动支持者投放的广告的历史分析表明，他们反复试图与各国的选举日程保持一致”。

研究人员表示：“法国的购买活动持续到 2024 年 6 月欧洲议会选举前的几个月，而英国的购买活动在 2024 年 5 月 17 日停止，也就是大选宣布前几天。”

他们补充说：“它持续宣传反穆斯林和反移民言论，令人担忧其试图在正式竞选期之外，在投票前塑造政治环境。”

此外，该报告还警告说，“在即将举行重大选举的国家，包括 2027 年的法国和意大利，这场运动仍然活跃”。

报告指出，法国的广告投放量约占总投放量的三分之一，在所有目标国家中占比最高。同时，英国的广告曝光量最高，达到1.54亿次，美国位居第二，曝光量为1亿次。

琼斯说：“在欧洲，这些广告利用了‘大替换’阴谋论的结构，即白人正在被移民取代。”

他指出：“卡塔尔扮演的角色与反犹主义者赋予乔治·索罗斯的角色如出一辙：一股幕后力量引导穆斯林移民‘伊斯兰化’欧洲。”

此外，调查发现，TikTok上出现的一则广告活动向欧洲用户宣传伊朗政权更迭。该广告于2月24日首次投放，比美国和以色列对伊朗发动战争早了四天。

报告称，有证据表明，该影响力行动“以中等到高度的置信度”从以色列内部发起，旨在将卡塔尔描绘成大规模移民背后的驱动力，其目的是使欧洲“伊斯兰化”。

研究人员表示，元数据显示，参与该宣传活动的视频剪辑人员是在以色列时区工作的。元数据还显示，他们使用的计算机的驱动器和文件夹名称均为希伯来语。

卡塔尔此前就曾是与以色列有关联的行动的目标。上个月，以色列《国土报》披露，在哈马斯领导的2023年10月7日袭击事件发生后的几周内，一群以色列影响力专家和政治顾问曾秘密策划了一场针对多哈的行动。

近年来，以色列政界人士也多次抨击卡塔尔，前总理纳夫塔利·贝内特甚至呼吁将卡塔尔宣布为敌对国家。

最近，以色列总理内塔尼亚胡领导的利库德集团毫无证据地指责多哈干预了周二举行的以色列大选。卡塔尔外交部谴责这些指控是“虚假信息宣传”。