The truth behind the video that was viewed 4 million times on Instagram. (Pallywood deep fakes in Europe)

Mako ^ | Nov 30, 2025

[Freeleesy]

The truth behind the video that was viewed 4 million times on Instagram. "A dangerous step up": The influence campaign of pro-Palestinian celebrities. Sophisticated pro-Palestinian groups are waging psychological warfare by impersonating popular celebrities, forging content with advanced deepfake AI technology, and building fake credibility over time, Israeli company Vetric reveals. The method relies on exploiting the emotional connection between a fan and a star to instill extremist political messages, which results in the lies being spread authentically by real users. Here’s how it works

Dana Gutterson. Mako.
Published:30.11.25, 08:57| Updated:30.11.25, 23:00


Pro-Palestinian impersonation campaign | Photo: From social networks.

In recent months, a disturbing picture of a new battleground in the digital space has emerged. Organized pro-Palestinian networks have adopted advanced psychological warfare tactics based on deception, impersonation, and advanced technology, according to a study by Israeli company Vetric, which provides a data infrastructure for analyzing public information that helps identify predictions, fake news, and suspicious activity online.

Fake photos of athletes.



According to the company, “in contrast to past attempts that relied on armies of simple, anonymous bots, the current campaign marks a dangerous escalation.” It is characterized by the cynical and sophisticated use of stolen identities of key cultural assets, such as fan pages of soccer stars from Europe’s top leagues, edited videos and photos of top YouTubers and major influencers, to make it appear that they support the Palestinians – which they neither did nor have done.



Fake photos of athletes.

The infrastructure that has been exposed is not accidental or sporadic. It is operated by pro-Palestinian ideological groups that resort to a strategy of using an influential “proxy.” “The strategic rationale is clear: when a revered soccer star or popular singer expresses a position, the fan’s critical barriers almost disappear. The networks exploit the deep emotional connection between the fan and the star to inject extremist political messages, using prominent visual symbols such as Palestinian flags and slogans associated with Islam,” says Or Katznelson, partner and COO at Vetric.

The network's method of operation relies on building credibility over time. The operators do not attack immediately, but rather establish or take over existing profiles that appear credible, sometimes ones that have already gained experience. The vast majority of them have a blue V, which increases the sense of authenticity and credibility and creates the appearance of an official page for that person.

In the first stage, the profiles are maintained with a content routine that simulates the character's real activity, such as photos from training sessions, clips from performances, and documentation from public events. Only after the profile has gained enough followers and credibility does the activity begin: a targeted integration of political content within the daily content, in a way that makes it difficult to quickly identify unusual activity but is well received by the followers.

An example of this is a coordinated campaign in which dozens of pages impersonating players from rival teams simultaneously posted the slogan #winGaza with the announcement of the ceasefire, creating an artificial image of victory and a sense of global consensus.

[#Gazawin campaign].

One of the key findings of the study is the way in which organized activity creates page waves that affect ordinary users. The initial distribution of the fake post is done by the activists, but it is designed to go viral. As soon as such a post gains momentum, the imitation effect appears: private users who are not part of the organized network are exposed to the viral success and imitate it. They share the fake news believing that it is true, or they set up similar pages themselves to ride the viral wave, gain sympathy and become popular. In this way, a planned fraud becomes a semi-authentic mass movement that makes it very difficult to locate the source of the forgery and stop it, because the distributors at this stage are real people who are convinced of the righteousness of their path.

The key factor that makes the phenomenon particularly dangerous is the technological maturity of the artificial intelligence that creates it. "We are at a historical turning point. If in the past, a reliable video fake required expensive studios and a team of special effects experts, today any hostile entity can create a fraud with minimal investment and effort," says Katznelson.

A notable example revealed in the study are deepfake videos of well-known figures, such as YouTuber Jake Paul, who appear to speak directly to the camera in a completely natural manner. The mimicry is almost perfect and the lip-syncing is at a very high level, even when the character speaks in languages ​​that the original person does not speak at all, such as Arabic, and incorporates religious chants.

Technological capability allows not only quality, but also quantity: industrial production of content at almost zero cost. A single command to a computer can produce dozens of versions of the same supposed star, expressing support for Gaza in variations adapted to each platform. This capability allows the network to be flooded until the truth is swallowed up in endless digital noise.

According to Wetrick, despite attempts to cover up, extensive activity has been identified, run from Egypt, where teams operate using local infrastructure and a uniform language structure. In addition, additional centers have been located throughout Europe. The operators work in coordination and use different profiles to create the appearance of a broad consensus.

"We are witnessing a leap forward in the evolution of disinformation. The combination of pro-Palestinian ideological motivation, hierarchical organization, and accessible and powerful artificial intelligence tools has created a well-oiled machine for consciousness engineering. The danger lies not only in the false content itself, but in its ability to cause millions of people to act on its basis, share it, and unwillingly turn them into agents of spreading lies. The assessment is that this is only a pilot, and that we are expected to see this method expand and become operational on a much wider scale in the near future," concludes Katznelson.
[Deep Fake. Fake News. Social networks.]

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TOPICS: Politics
KEYWORDS: artificial; celebrities; deepfake; fakeimages; fakephotos; gazawin; instagram; intelligence; misrepresentation; palestinian; palestinkians; pallywood; propaganda; socialnetworks; sports; sportsfigures; taqiyya; vetric

[Freeleesy]

Taqiyya full force

[Hot Tabasco]

That guy in the middle is the dude with the ridiculously big teeth in the Trivago commercial.

[PGalt]

Yes. Interesting.