A group called Explosive Media has admitted to the BBC that the Iranian government is a 'customer' for their AI-generated propaganda videos. The clips, which feature Lego-style animation showing political figures like Donald Trump and scenes from the US-Iran conflict, have been viewed hundreds of millions of times. A representative who goes by 'Mr Explosive' said his team of fewer than ten people chose the Lego aesthetic because it's 'a world language' that crosses cultural barriers. Iranian and Russian state media accounts regularly share the videos to millions of followers on X.
The technical quality has impressed viewers, including Hacker News commenters who noted the animation rivals traditional stop-motion. The production pipeline involves multiple steps and specialized tools. Creators typically start with high-fidelity text-to-image models like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion, using custom LoRAs to nail the distinct geometry and plastic textures of LEGO bricks. Those static images get animated with tools like Runway Gen-2, Pika Labs, or Luma Dream Machine. Voiceovers come from ElevenLabs. The whole process requires post-processing to fix morphing artifacts common in generative video.
Propaganda expert Dr Emma Briant told the BBC the content is 'highly sophisticated' and that AI tools, largely trained on Western data, are ideal for creating 'culturally appropriate' content targeting Western audiences. Dr Tine Munk, a cyber warfare expert at Nottingham Trent University, calls it 'defensive memetic warfare.' The videos appear in near real-time after major developments. One about a ceasefire agreement dropped before any official announcements.
But the videos aren't accurate. One clip shows Iran's military capturing a downed US pilot. US officials confirmed the airman was actually rescued by US special forces. Mr Explosive denied this, claiming the real goal was 'to steal uranium from Iran.' A US-based TikTok influencer repeated the fabricated narrative as fact anyway.