The world's most powerful governments have discovered that nothing spreads political messaging quite like toys and video games. In March, AI-generated videos showing Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu as LEGO minifigures flooded social media, attributed to Iran's Revayat-e Fath Institute and a group calling itself the "Explosive News Team." The White House responded with its own AI content, splicing real war footage with Wii Sports and Call of Duty aesthetics to display American military strikes against Iranian targets. Both sides figured out the same thing: when you package war in familiar entertainment formats, people actually watch.
AI made production trivial. China's Xinhua News Agency ran LEGO propaganda videos during COVID-19, depicting terra cotta warrior minifigures lecturing a sickly Statue of Liberty. Russian operatives circulated fake LEGO set images ahead of Moldova's 2025 elections, suggesting the country would be dragged into war. ISIS pioneered this approach in 2015 with recruitment videos styled like action movie trailers. What changed is that generative AI now lets anyone produce polished content at scale. You don't need a state media apparatus anymore. Just a prompt and an afternoon.
Renée DiResta, the Georgetown researcher who wrote the TIME analysis, points out the core problem: social media algorithms reward engagement, not accuracy. A catchy LEGO animation mocking Trump spreads whether viewers agree with it or not. The format disarms skepticism. State television feels like propaganda. A meme about war feels like something you'd share with friends. Governments aren't just broadcasting anymore. They're competing for attention in the same feed as cat videos and influencer drama, using the same tools.