Arcane

🔦A covert ad campaign pushing racist, anti-Muslim, anti-migrant and anti-Qatar propaganda has racked up more than 533 million recorded exposures across Europe, Lebanon and the United States, 30 different countries, since October 2023, according to a new investigation by researchers Marc Owen Jones and Sohan Dsouza. Its funder remains hidden, but several trails lead to Israel. The campaign began with billboards in Lebanon blaming Iran and Hezbollah for the war, with Israel left out entirely. It then blamed Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, with ads pressuring Sheikha Moza, the Emir's mother, over Israeli captives and urging boycotts of Qatari-owned brands. It soon escalated into "Great Replacement" conspiracy content describing Qatar as the hidden force "Islamising" Europe. The operation spent over $1.2 million on Meta ads by mid-2024 alone. It ran dozens of fake front groups across six platforms and reached Times Square and a 2024 CPAC stage shortly before Donald Trump spoke. Among the leads the researchers found: ▪️ A campaign poster traced to Johnnie Moore, the evangelical Trump adviser who later led the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, whose PR firm also publicized a campaign protest 
▪️ A Wikipedia sockpuppet network linked to an Israeli IP address 
▪️ Video files with Hebrew labels, made on a Sunday-to-Thursday workweek, pointing to an Israel-based production team 🔗 The report and a detailed thread are below. The operation is still running.