Russian state media has shared an Iranian-made AI video showing a missile blowing up the State of Liberty, days after Iran threatened tourist sites worldwide.
The minute-long clip, which ends with the ominous slogan “One vengeance for all”, has been attributed to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB and was later shared by Russian state media outlet RT.
Sequences invoking Native American dispossession, the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan, the Vietnam War, and more recent conflicts in the Middle East all featured in the video, casting the US as the world’s enemy.
It also shows a child on the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous island, a theme that Iran’s regime has returned to repeatedly to suggest Donald Trump initiated the war to distract from the scandal. Later shots show AI-generated figures of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Qassem Soleimani looking skyward.
The final sequence shows a missile in red, white and green – the colours of the Iranian flag – entering New York Harbour before colliding with the State of Liberty, whose head has been replaced by that of Baal, a biblical false idol.
The footage is the latest in a series of AI-generated propaganda videos released since February 28, when America’s joint military operation with Israel against Iran began.
Chinese state television outlet CCTV last week shared a separate AI-generated video to illustrate Beijing’s perspective on the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz.
The shipping chokepoint, through which 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas passes, has been effectively blocked by Iran since early March.
The five-minute CCTV video featured martial arts-fighting Persian cats representing Iran, as well as a human with the head of an eagle meant to represent the US.
Analysts have highlighted the excess of AI-generated content used to spread fake news about the conflict since it began.
One study from South Carolina’s Clemson University found that within 24 hours of the US and Israel’s initial attacks on Iran, dozens of social media accounts affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps began posting Iranian propaganda about the war, some of it reaching audiences of millions.
“The propaganda includes memes and cartoons that aren’t meant to be perceived as real but are very good at spreading political messaging,” co-director of Clemson’s Media Forensics Hub and author of the study, Darren Linvill, said.
“The deepfakes portray a version of reality that (seems) genuine and often paint Iran as more successful in the conflict. Both are being shared widely among communities that are critical of the war and hungry for this messaging.”
Almost a month on, there appears to be no end to the conflict in sight. On Thursday, Iran rejected Donald Trump’s 15-point peace plan, with an unidentified senior official in Tehran calling the US President “the world’s most pathetic and dishonourable liar”.
“Iran has responded negatively to an American proposal aimed at ending the ongoing imposed war,” the official said, according to the English language broadcaster Press TV.
“The end of the war will occur when Iran decides it should end, not when Trump envisions its conclusion.”
Tehran has instead put forward its own five conditions for hostilities to end, according to the same unidentified Iranian official cited by Press TV and picked up by the Mehr and Tasnim agencies.
Mr Trump had earlier claimed that Iran had agreed to major components of his proposal, including giving up their nuclear weapon ambition.
In a defiant statement last Friday, Iran insisted it was still building missiles and threatened to expand its retaliatory attacks to tourist locations across the globe.
General Abolfazl Shekarchi, Iran’s top military spokesperson, said that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” would not be safe for the country’s enemies – increasing fears that the regime will deploy militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic.
“We are watching your cowardly officials and commanders, pilots and wicked soldiers,” he said.
“From now on, based on the information we have on you, the promenades, resorts and tourist and entertainment centres in the world will not be safe.”
– with The New York Post
