War, fake videos, and engagement farming
AI-generated videos of war in the Middle East have gone viral in the wake of recent US/Israeli strikes on Iran
Meet “Tech News World”, a Facebook page that recently pivoted from spamming the platform with AI-generated movie posters to spamming the platform with AI-generated fake videos of warfare in the Middle East. The page in question has been repurposed multiple times over its three years of existence, as is common with engagement farming efforts; prior themes include puppies and Gal Gadot. Unsurprisingly, “Tech News World” is not the only spammy content farm that has elected to exploit the current war for clicks and views, and the phenomenon is not limited to Facebook.
The majority of the recent videos posted by “Tech News World” purport to show scenes of destruction from the war currently taking place in the Middle East, and generally feature AI-generated versions of locations in Iran and Israel. There are multiple problems with these videos; for example, explosions are unrealistically colorful and crisp, and frequently leave no damage to structures behind in their wake. Some videos also include nonexistent military technology, such as the “massive, glowing blue directed-energy beam” mentioned in the middle post in the above collage.
Prior to the recent glut of fake war footage, the operator(s) of “Tech News World” made various attempts at garnering engagement with other types of repetitive content. The earliest posts still visible feature photos of dogs, generally engaged in cute dog behaviors; these photos are all plagiarized from other social media accounts and websites. In late 2024, the account pivoted from stolen dog photos to AI-generated movie posters, some of which contain obvious glitches such as incorrectly rendered titles. The final batch of movie posters to date was posted on March 2nd, 2026; all content since has been AI-generated material related to the war in Middle East.
As mentioned earlier, “Tech News World” is far from the only Facebook page posting AI-generated fake war footage. At present, AI-generated videos of the war in the Middle East are frequently served up by Facebook’s recommendation algorithms, particularly in the “Reels” section. Incongruously, despite allegedly taking place in countries where English is not the primary language, many of the AI-generated war videos feature bystanders speaking fluent English, generally with common US accents.
As with “Tech News World”, many (not all) of the other Facebook pages posting AI-generated videos of warfare have been repeatedly renamed and repurposed. This is a common pattern with content farm accounts, in some cases due to an account changing hands, and in others as the result of the page operator’s desire to try new engagement farming tactics. New accounts created in 2026 also turn up somewhat frequently among the pages posting bogus war footage.
Similar AI-generated war videos, and in some cases the exact same clips, can be found on other social media platforms as well. The above collage includes a few examples from X (formerly Twitter); the same type of content also turns up on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and elsewhere. Unfortunately, as long as such material is rewarded with clicks and views, the trend of content farmers exploiting war and other tragedies for social media engagement will likely continue to evolve with available technology.