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

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that a three-year investigation by academics Marc Owen Jones and Sohan Dsouza has uncovered a paid influence operation that spread racist, Islamophobic and anti-Qatar messaging across social media platforms including YouTube, TikTok and Facebook. The report, published on Thursday, says the campaign reached users in 30 countries and may have cost more than $11m.

According to the researchers, the operation generated at least 533 million ad exposures between October 2023 and October 2026. The material reportedly pushed anti-Muslim, anti-migrant and anti-Qatar narratives, and was timed in part around elections in several countries. France, the United Kingdom and the United States were among the main targets, with the researchers saying the ads were especially prominent ahead of the June 2024 European Parliament vote and the UK general election period.

The report argues that the campaign used themes similar to the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, portraying Qatar as a hidden force behind migration to Europe. The researchers said there is moderate to high confidence that the operation originated in Israel, citing technical indicators such as time-zone data and Hebrew-language machine folders. Al Jazeera notes that the report also links a separate TikTok effort to pro-regime-change messaging on Iran.

The findings matter because they point to a large-scale attempt to manipulate public opinion and political debate through social media advertising. Qatar has repeatedly faced accusations and criticism from Israeli figures, while Doha has denied such claims and called recent allegations disinformation.