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Iran’s AI memes are reaching people who don’t follow the news – and winning the propaganda war
(theconversation.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2026
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The administration got into power by being the first to hire the company (Cambridge Analytica) that discovered how targeted advertisement could be used to turn cash into effective propaganda by exploiting psychological profiling and social media.
That strategy requires a lot of money because in order to put their message in front of the eyes of people they have to pay for every single view. This has been effective since they represent a faction of American elites which have a huge amount of money.
Memes are different, they spread because they appeal to people and those people want to share them. This lets you wrap a message in a catchy meme and it spreads across social media for 'free'.
This administration is fighting a 2020s meme war with 2010 tactics. Having all the money in the world, buying all of the TV, social media and news organization in the US can only do so much.
Now 5 writers with a few graphics cards can make meme-quality content which is seen by everyone as long as the message resonates.
This administration isn't equipped for this kind of fight.
Their memes are weak and only 'work' in the right-wing media sphere due to them spending hundreds of millions of dollars on buying media companies, sponsoring influencers and running bot labs in order to signal boost their message and shape the online conversation by creating an artificial illusion of consensus.
There is no right-wing comedy, everything they do is built on making people outraged, angry and scared. That's not the kind of memes that spread on their own and money can only do so much.