A YouTube channel called Explosive News is pumping out AI-generated propaganda videos that depict Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu as Lego-style bobbleheads getting blown up by missiles. The videos have racked up millions of views. Iranian government accounts share them. Russian state media promotes them. Even some No Kings protesters have co-opted the anti-Trump imagery. The whole thing feels absurd, watching plastic toy figures act out real war deaths, but that's the point.
The channel claims to be run by an independent student team with no government ties. A representative told The New Yorker they are "totally independent" with "no government. No military. No state TV." But Forbes noted that some videos have been reposted by Tasnim News, which is affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Other clips bear watermarks from Revayat-e Fath, an Iranian state media foundation. The Explosive News spokesperson insisted those are just Persian titles, not institutional connections. Believe that or not.
What's clear is that generative AI has made this kind of content easy to produce. The team says they can churn out a two-minute video in about 24 hours. Media scholars have started calling this stuff "slopaganda," cheap, fast, personalized propaganda that spreads before anyone can fact-check it. The Explosive News representative put it plainly: "Let's face it. If truth isn't flashy, it's kinda lonely." Explosive News is just one channel. The model works. Others are watching. The Lego Group maintains a strict policy against political use of its IP and sends cease-and-desist orders to violators. Good luck enforcing that against an anonymous team in Iran.