UAE's Hidden Hand in AI-Driven Campaign Defaming European Muslims, Attacking Qatar

A suspicious AI-driven campaign on social media has reached at least 41 million people on Facebook alone. It targets Muslims in the West by defaming and inciting against them, accusing Qatar of orchestrating a "conspiracy to Islamize Europe.”

This covert campaign, operating across multiple digital platforms, uses anti-Muslim propaganda to attack Qatar.

Its primary goal is to tarnish the image of Muslims in Europe, America, and Canada through a series of dubious accounts promoting misleading information, videos, and images that depict them as "extremist Islamists" hostile to the West.

Experts in digital disinformation and propaganda suspect that the UAE is behind the campaign, given its history of similar plots against European Muslims and its support for the far-right in France's elections to incite against the Islamic movement.

What is the background of this network, and how is it linked to the UAE, which Al-Estiklal previously reported on for plotting in Europe to defame Muslims and support far-right movements in France?

The Conspiracy Unveiled

On July 7, 2024, a study by two foreign researchers revealed shocking truths about American and European groups targeting Muslims in Europe and Qatar.

The study, titled The Qatar Plot, uncovered new information about one of the largest influence operations on social media aimed at tarnishing the image of Muslims in Western countries.

It also targets Qatar for its role in trying to end the Israeli war on Gaza and supporting some Muslim activities in the West.

The study revealed that this campaign operates with extraordinary intensity across social media platforms, using AI programs to disseminate misleading, anti-foreigner, anti-Muslim, and anti-Qatar information through a vast network.

The content of this network, aimed at manipulating millions of social media users, reached at least 41 million people on Facebook alone.

The study noted that "AI-generated content" significantly created convincing yet deceptive narratives through images and videos.

It confirmed that this campaign also promotes claims to incite the far right and feed its rhetoric with misleading information used in "Islamophobia" campaigns and to provoke against Western Muslims in general.

The study was conducted by Marc Owen Jones, an expert in disinformation, propaganda, and digital authoritarianism in social media at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and Sohan Dsouza, a media expert at MIT based in London.

The researchers analyzed a vast amount of data to uncover the source of this mysterious and dubious operation.

They confirmed that the campaign began in 2023 and spread across several countries, centered on promoting anti-Islam and anti-immigrant rhetoric while targeting Qatar for its mediation role in ending the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza since October 7, 2023.

The disinformation and defamation campaign against Muslims and Qatar is conducted through platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and TikTok, particularly in France, the UK, the U.S., Germany, Spain, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, and others.

The study highlighted that this anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and anti-Qatar campaign could be one of the largest known influence operations on Facebook.

It aimed at EU countries in terms of ad spending, exploiting political climates before major elections, as seen in the European Parliament, UK, and France elections.

These online and offline campaigns, intertwined and sponsored by ads and web hosting infrastructure, demonstrate how easy it is to defame an individual or an entire country in the age of disinformation while concealing the ultimate perpetrators, according to the study.

The experts' analysis revealed that the operation was executed in two phases, tracking more than 900 Facebook ads at a minimum.

The first phase, from January to March 2024, targeted Muslims in the UK, France, the U.S., Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia.

The second phase, from May to June 2024, targeted Muslims in France, Belgium, Sweden, Croatia, Malta, Germany, and the UK.

Marc Jones disclosed that the campaign spent significant amounts on promotion, with approximately a quarter of a million dollars spent on Facebook alone.

This raises questions about why Facebook’s management allowed these AI-generated campaigns while claiming strict adherence to its content standards and advertising policies.

Targeting Muslims

The study confirmed that it gathered facts and information about these disinformation campaigns aimed at inflaming far-right rhetoric against European Muslims, as well as evidence of roles played by Christian Zionist movements in the U.S. against Muslims.

It explained that many of these dubious AI-driven accounts spread as much disinformation as possible on social media against European Muslims, inciting police to prevent their prayers in streets, which usually take place due to mosque overcrowding on Fridays.

Some of these accounts, such as “Europe Invasion,” claim that Muslims praying in the streets of Europe, Canada, and the U.S. is “a show of force by Islamists.”

From these dubious AI-generated accounts aimed at tarnishing the image of Western Muslims, the Daily Reports account intentionally posts photos and videos inciting against Muslims, such as depicting the Eiffel Tower in France wearing a niqab.

These sites also heavily promote content written by some European racists against Muslims. They propagate claims about the Islamization of Europe by sharing videos of Muslim gatherings in the streets and framing this as a danger that needs to be addressed.

The campaign also selectively highlights angry comments from Muslims who have been assaulted by police in France and Europe. For example, they might quote someone saying, "Muslims have the right to kill the police if they kill us" because "this is written in the Quran."

The campaign's anti-Muslim accounts argue that this suggests “Sharia law takes precedence over the democratic laws of European countries,” warning that “this represents a dangerous deviation that warrants a strong response from law enforcement.”

Why Targeting Qatar?

In the section concerning Doha, the study reveals that the aim of the Qatar Conspiracy campaign, orchestrated by unknown entities speculated to be the UAE, is to tarnish Qatar's global image.

The campaign portrays Qatar as a supporter of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), hosting their leaders, and backing them during mediation efforts to end the aggression against Gaza. It also alleges that Qatari institutions support "Islamic activities" in the West.

Researcher Marc Owen Jones stated on his Twitter that “the well-funded campaigns are designed to stir anti-Qatar sentiments across the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.”

He said that “the study findings reveal a vast network spreading xenophobic, anti-Muslim, anti-immigration, and anti-Qatar disinformation.”

The disinformation strategies targeting audiences in Europe and America are diverse, aimed at inciting emotions through claims of Islamic threats allegedly supported by Qatar, calls for global isolation of Qatar, and personal attacks on the Qatari royal family.

The study notes that “malicious campaigns include numerous negative metaphors. For instance, an anti-Qatar advertisement appeared at a conservative political gathering in the United States attended by former President Donald Trump, which included right-wing and Christian Zionist groups.”

The 77-page study revealed details of the campaign involving dubious websites calling for a boycott of Doha. Examples include a billboard in New York's Times Square criticizing Qatari officials, and hundreds of "defamatory" ads on Facebook from a network with branches in Vietnam, according to Agence-France Presse (AFP) on July 8, 2024.

One of the dubious social media accounts, titled The Qatar Plot, promotes what it claims to be the revelation of a secret Qatari-Iranian conspiracy to take over Western Europe.

Another account deliberately posts news and articles attacking both European Muslims and Qatar, claiming that Doha is leading a conspiracy to "Islamize" Europe.

One of these new websites is an account named Shame on Qatar, available in English, French, and Spanish, indicating substantial financial backing.

This account accuses Qatar of funding terrorists, specifically referring to Hamas, and calls for a boycott of institutions and stores overseen by Doha.

This includes prominent establishments such as Harrods in London, Paris Saint-Germain football club, and the New York Plaza Hotel.

This website made an appearance in an ad during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February 2024, where Trump spoke.

The ad called for sanctions against Qatar, alleging that it poses a security threat. The conference declined to disclose the sponsor to AFP.

Another anti-Qatar website, named “It's in YOUR hands,” criticizes Sheikha Moza Nasser, the current Emir's mother, accusing her country of supporting terrorists.

The site claims that Sheikha Moza failed to secure the release of Israeli prisoners in Gaza, despite her not having any official role in Qatar's mediation efforts.

The logo of this website also appeared in February 2024 in an ad targeting Sheikha Moza, which was displayed in Times Square in New York.

The billboard, that aired the ad, is owned by the American advertising giant Outfront Media, which also refused to disclose the sponsor of the campaign.

UAE Involvement

Interestingly, this account claimed that there was a petition on Change.org targeting the mother of the Emir of Qatar, supposedly launched by a person named John Anderson, presented as the head of an organization called “Citizens of Human Lives.”

However, it turned out that both the man and the organization behind the petition, signed by thousands, were entirely fictitious.

Despite this, an American evangelical named Johnnie Moore, a businessman and pro-Israel, asked a demonstrator to carry the petition as if there were indeed an organization opposing the Emir’s mother, even though it was a non-existent entity.

The study revealed that as part of a large-scale operation on Facebook, owned by Meta, thousands of pages were used to circulate over 900 anti-Qatar ads, many of which called for its political isolation, accused it of fueling Muslim migration to Europe, and promoting terrorism.

The campaign was also active on platforms like X, TikTok, YouTube, and Wikimedia (primarily Wikipedia and Wikidata).

In response to Qatari complaints, Meta investigated and found that these coordinated anti-Qatar efforts originated from Vietnam.

Vietnam is known as a black market for trading hacked Facebook accounts to post ads, but researchers emphasized that the country is not the source of the anti-Qatar campaign, merely a "facilitator."

There is an "unknown entity," likely the UAE, funding these misleading ads from Vietnam, particularly since the company responsible was "sold to unknown clients via Telegram," according to AFP.

Meta’s Public Affairs Director, Margarita Franklin, told AFP that this network was removed once it was found to be "fake."

However, these ads targeting Muslims and Qatar still reach at least 41 million people, costing $270,000, according to researchers Mark Owen Jones and Suhan Dsouza, who noted that this data comes from Facebook’s ad library.

In searching for commonalities among the various attacks, researchers and AFP discovered a large network of individuals including a Vietnamese hacker, an influential advertising agency, and roles played by evangelical Christian clergy in the U.S.

They noted that all these parties are working to obscure the true masterminds behind the operation.

Researcher Suhan Dsouza, who previously worked for the American research center MIT Media Lab, said the apparent goal of these campaigns is to portray any institutional relationship with Qatar as harmful and dangerous.

The New York Times previously reported on December 19, 2019, that the UAE financed expensive campaigns in London following the blockade of Qatar to strip Qatar of hosting the 2022 World Cup.

The campaigns focused on exaggerating concerns about workers' rights in Qatar and included accusations that Qatari officials bribed to secure the World Cup hosting rights.

Earlier, a report published by The Intercept on November 9, 2017, confirmed that a plan by the UAE to wage a financial war against Qatar was found in an email account belonging to Abu Dhabi's ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba.

NBC News also revealed on January 19, 2018, that a PR company that helped Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election participated in spreading negative information about Qatar as part of a UAE and Saudi campaign during the blockade of Doha.

The company, Cambridge Analytica, admitted in documents submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice that it received $333,000 from the UAE to conduct a social media campaign in 2017 linking Qataris to terrorism.