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 US 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 Jeffrey 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”.
This prompted a reaction from Tehran’s foreign ministry, which accused YouTube of “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 leaned into using artificial intelligence to push its narrative 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 10 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 about the group behind these viral AI-generated propaganda clips in this episode of Truth or Fake.