An image calling on people to pay attention to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza has attracted more than 29 million shares on Instagram in less than 24 hours, highlighting new pressure on social media from supporters of the Palestinians. following a deadly Israeli airstrike.
The image shows tents at a camp set up to write “All eyes on Rafah”, an area of southern Gaza filled with refugee camps where local authorities said at least 45 civilians died after an Israeli strike on Sunday .
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the country’s parliament in Hebrew that the victims were a “tragic accident”; his office submitted clarifying comments in English translating the phrase as “tragic incident.”
The image was shared primarily through Instagram’s Stories feature, featuring influencers, athletes and celebrities — including “Bridgerton” star Nicola Coughlan, singer-songwriter Kehlani and top actor Indians, Varun Dhawan – who posted the image.
Instagram has become a crucial channel for Palestinian journalists and supporters of the Palestinians in recent months, despite efforts by its owner, Meta, to limit the spread of political content – echoing the broader increase in news content on the platform.
While the image of “All eyes on Rafah” quickly spread, the Rafah video published by Palestinian journalists was restricted and, in some cases, removed from social media because it depicted the stark consequences of the Israeli strikes. Two of three Instagram posts showing burned, seriously injured and dead bodies after the recent strike have been deleted, and one of them was preceded by a sensitive content filter for “graphic or violent content.” The footage was verified by NBC News. An Instagram spokesperson said the company removed the content due to its violent and graphic nature, which it said violated the platform’s policies.
The “All Eyes on Rafah” image does not represent the violence that is actually happening on the ground, but it echoes other content that has gone viral repeatedly and has been supported by people with large followings on social networks. social networks over the past eight months.
“The trend of posting ‘All Eyes on Rafah’ is something that has been growing for a little while,” said Matt Navarra, a social media consultant and industry analyst. “We’ve seen a large number of influencers and celebrities and people with large followings across multiple platforms, not just Instagram, who share the sentiment of this message or a near-identical version of it, which will increase reach and visibility on many platforms. platforms.
The image also appears to be one of the first pieces of viral activist iconography to be created by artificial intelligence. Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor of Middle East studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar who studies disinformation, said the image “definitely looks” generated by AI.
Signs that the image was generated by AI include that it does not appear photorealistic, that it includes unusual shadows, and that the tent camp shown is unusually sprawling and symmetrical – a sign of pattern repetition common in AI generation.
Pro-Palestinian activism on social media has increased repeatedly since Israel began its assault on Gaza following the October 7 terrorist attacks, in which more than 1,100 civilians were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage. More recently, a massive blocking campaign targeting celebrities who have not openly supported the Palestinians has gained traction. Pro-Israel activity on social media has also increased at times, sparked most recently by war-related protests on college campuses. Some people with large platforms have openly supported Israeli civilians, which has sometimes led to backlash against them.
Starting Sunday, Israeli forces advanced on Rafah in ground and air offensives, despite public outcry over the civilian casualties that followed. Palestinians inside the tent camp have reported dozens of deaths, including young children, some caused by fires that ravaged the camp. An Israeli official told NBC News that the fire was caused by the explosion of a fuel tank after an Israeli airstrike hit it.
The account that initially posted the “All eyes on Rafah” image on Instagram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meta, Instagram’s parent company, opened its moderation board to debate whether popular pro-Palestinian rhetoric like “from the river to the sea” constitutes a policy violation, while it also announced efforts to limit the spread of political speech on its site. platforms. On Meta’s Facebook, AI images generated hundreds of millions of engagements.
Navarra said the image shows how activists can use AI to create content that can both communicate messages while respecting the platforms’ rules. By inserting text into the images themselves, they can avoid any keyword detection moderation applied to image captions. AI-generated content can also be created very quickly, compared to traditional digital art methods which take much longer.
“This perhaps circumvents some of the automated moderation on the platform, because it is an AI-generated image and there is nothing in there that is extremely dangerous or controversial ” Navarra said of the image “All eyes are on Rafah.” “It’s interesting to see this come to fruition.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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