A small media outfit by the name of Explosive Media said it was behind the Lego videos.<\/p>\n
The group claimed it was “totally independent” of the Iranian regime, but a representative admitted to the BBC<\/a> that Tehran was a “customer”.<\/p>\n The clips have been re-shared by Iranian regime accounts, and some have even found their way into the messaging of US protesters opposed to Mr Trump’s war in Iran.<\/p>\n Propaganda watchers have coined terms for this content: meme warfare or meme trafficking. In the US, it’s known by another title, Lego-ganda<\/a>.<\/p>\n Most agree it’s a clear indication of a new front that has opened up in the war, one fought not with weapons, but with AI tools.<\/p>\n “[The video creators are] taking what’s posted seriously online and then turning it into something fun to look at,” Nancy Snow, an American communications professor and author who studies propaganda, told the ABC.<\/p>\n The consistent undertone of the videos is impossible to miss: Iran is the underdog in its fight against the United States.<\/p>\n “If you can control the narrative, you can really control the atmosphere and the mood,” Professor Snow said.<\/p>\n In AI-era warfare, technological advancements are giving rise to new storytelling methods that can be distributed online in real time at scale.<\/p>\n And analysts say the growth of this type of propaganda is a powerful example of how state actors are attempting to influence not just their domestic populations, but the public opinion of their rivals, with a view to winning the narrative battle in the war.<\/p>\n Iran’s meme warfare makes joke of Trump<\/p>\n Explosive Media’s first foray into meme warfare occurred last year during the 12-day war, a representative told US media.<\/p>\n By the time the conflict returned at the end of February, their team, which the representative described<\/a> as “student-led with a background in social activism”, was “ready, plans in place, engines revving \u2014 and, by day two, the Lego-style videos were back in action”.<\/p>\n Explosive Media has created Lego-style clips of Donald Trump and others throughout the war. (Supplied: X\/Explosive Media)<\/p>\n The clear target of its videos is Mr Trump, who is regularly mocked and portrayed in an unflattering light, sometimes with his pants on fire or profusely sweating.<\/p>\n One of the earlier videos the group released shows a panicked Mr Trump ordering an air strike after looking over the “Epstein File” alongside Satan.<\/p>\n It is one of many pointed references to the trove of documents related to investigations into the convicted sex offender and former friend of Mr Trump, in an apparent effort to embarrass the US president.<\/p>\n Another video shows the commander-in-chief crying while eating a taco, a nod to the refrain that “Trump always chickens out (TACO)”<\/a>.<\/p>\n News events, both past and present, are regularly sprinkled throughout the videos, including the recent ceasefire deal and Mr Trump’s declaration the Strait of Hormuz is open.<\/p>\n Explosive Media’s videos have accrued tens of thousands of likes and millions of views on platforms including TikTok, Instagram, and X. The group has also been joined by other creators, including PersiaBoi.<\/p>\n Analysts say the Iranian videos are a form of slopaganda, a combination of slop \u2014 unwanted AI-generated content such as memes, video, or text \u2014 and propaganda.<\/p>\n But unlike propaganda of the past, which might have taken a week or two months to prepare, the slopaganda distributed throughout the Iran war is being generated quickly and at a greater scale.<\/p>\n “Information warfare has been around ever since there’s been warfare. But this is a new manifestation of it, and it’s fast. It reaches people that wouldn’t otherwise have been reached,” Mark Alfano, a computer science expert and associate professor of philosophy at Macquarie University, told the ABC.<\/p>\n “It’s very compelling \u2026 It’s pretty catchy. And these videos are getting dropped once or twice a day at this point and seem to be responding to the events of the day.”<\/p>\n The Lego-style videos have attracted a large audience online. (Supplied: X\/Explosive Media)<\/p>\n Traditionally, propaganda is targeted at a domestic population, but Dr Alfano explained this “savvy team of maybe a dozen guys” was producing propaganda not for Iranians, but for “Americans and probably Western Europeans”.<\/p>\n “The audio is in English, not Farsi,” he said.<\/p>\n The use of Lego animation was also quite deliberate, according to Dr Alfano.<\/p>\n “If you put something in a language that people have known since they were five years old, then it’s compelling and familiar in a way that is likely to have more influence,” he said.<\/p>\n Using ‘the weapons of their enemies against them’<\/p>\n Iran’s embassies have engaged in other forms of meme warfare throughout the conflict. In a coordinated response to Mr Trump’s expletive-laden threat to open the Strait of Hormuz in early April, the social media pages of embassies based in countries including South Africa and New Delhi shared anti-Trump memes on their pages.<\/p>\n The Iranian embassy in Zimbabwe said on X: “We’ve lost the keys.”<\/p>\n In another video shared by the Iranian embassy in South Africa, an AI-generated Mr Trump plays the keyboard and sings: “I will never give you up.”<\/p>\n Professor Snow said this was how sophisticated propaganda worked, by incorporating “entertainment value” to shut down the “critical thinking” of its readers or viewers.<\/p>\n “It gets right to the heart of the matter: US bad, Israel bad, and \u2026 Iran is the underdog,” she said.<\/p>\n “These videos have played an inordinate role in how we’re talking about this war in Iran. And so it is setting a mood.”<\/p>\n Dr Alfano noted that the creators of the Lego videos and other Iranian propaganda were using tools that were likely “developed and deployed in data centres in the United States”.<\/p>\n “So, the resources of the United States are literally being used against the Trump administration right now,” he added.<\/p>\n “They just use the weapons of their enemy against them.”<\/p>\n The result, Dr Alfano explained, was a “much more volatile information environment” at a time when “public opinion is already on the knife’s edge”.<\/p>\n “That can be extremely powerful,” he said.<\/p>\n “In the same way that the closing of the Strait of Hormuz by small boats with bazookas on them \u2026 is still effective, so can this kind of information warfare shape both domestic and international opinion in a way that could be decisive.”<\/p>\n The US’s ‘lack of narrative coherence’<\/p>\n The information war isn’t limited to Iran. The US has waged its own propaganda battle throughout its campaign, using pop-culture references and video games to reach more online users.<\/p>\n Mr Trump is part of this machine. And he has shown a willingness to deploy AI content in the past to suit his messaging.<\/p>\n Sometimes it has worked, sometimes it hasn’t, analysts say, pointing to the recent controversy over a meme Mr Trump shared, which depicted him as a Jesus-like figure. The US president said he thought the image portrayed him as a “doctor”.<\/p>\n Donald Trump posted the image on social media, then deleted it soon after. (Truth Social: Donald Trump)<\/p>\n “It’s so unbelievable,” Professor Snow said.<\/p>\n Part of the criticism may be a reflection of how people are feeling about a conflict that is costing more lives by the moment. But Dr Alfano has also pointed to “a lack of narrative coherence” in some of the US’ propaganda throughout the campaign.<\/p>\n Official US accounts have taken to splicing clips from sports and video games and inserting them into real footage of military strikes before distributing them online.<\/p>\n Those involved in creating the videos have told US media<\/a> they have proven effective in drawing attention and connecting with young people, but analysts disagree.<\/p>\n “It’s unclear who you’re supposed to sympathise with, who you’re supposed to see as the good guy or the bad guy,” Dr Alfano said.<\/p>\n He explained there was a big difference between slicing together scenes from famous movies and TV shows, and the storytelling of the Iranian propagandists, which responds to and narrates current events in short 2-minute videos.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/e1776c4f4ff0b09b8e15920bd0fa8aa0.jpeg\")
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