As the ‘meme war’ between the US and Iran continues via AI ‘slopaganda,’ an Iran-linked group named Explosive Media has been pumping out viral LEGO-style videos ridiculing the US war effort in Iran, and trolling President Donald Trump. Many of these videos depict Trump as childish and fickle, accuse him of having started the war to distract from his ties to Jeff Epstein, and have gained an audience of hundreds of millions online.
Recently, after a LEGO-style video claimed “Iran won” last week, YouTube banned Explosive Media’s channel, suspending it for violent content and “violating its Spam, deceptive practices and scams policies.”
It prompted a reaction from Tehran’s Foreign Ministry, which accused YouTube for “suppressing the truth” and “shielding the US administration’s false narrative from any competing voice.” The rest of Explosive Media’s other accounts on Meta platforms, X and Tiktok appear unaffected for the moment.
Since the Middle East war, Iran has really leaned into using artificial intelligence to push its side of this war to a non-Iranian audience, often using American references and satire to flood the internet.
But who are the Explosive Media group? A representative for the group told the BBC the team consists of less than ten people, and admitted the Iranian government is one of their clients, despite having previously claimed to be independent.
Vedika Bahl goes through Tehran’s criticism of this new YouTube suspension, and what we know of the group behind these viral AI-generated propaganda clips in this episode of Truth or Fake.