On June 7, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency published a 77-page in-depth investigation conducted by researchers Marc Owen Jones and Sohan D’Souza. The investigation revealed a large-scale smear campaign targeting the state of Qatar, especially on social media platforms. This campaign coincided with the Israeli war on Gaza and Doha’s mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza.
The two researchers detailed that the global misleading campaign against Qatar began at the end of 2023 and was the largest of its kind targeting the country. The campaign was organized by a vast network employing sprawling tactics, such as using suspicious websites calling for the boycott of Qatar, street advertising boards targeting Qatari officials, and the recruitment of groups that regularly publish hundreds of misleading advertisements and slanders against Qatar on social media.
The Misleading Campaign Against Qatar Reached Millions of People
According to the two researchers, this campaign was the largest yet targeting Qatar. Its network regularly attacked the state and aimed to promote geopolitical agendas, exploit anti-immigration and anti-Muslim sentiments, and stir fears and allegations regarding extremism in Western universities. In its first wave, the campaign targeted France, the United Kingdom, the U.S., and Lebanon. It later expanded to other European countries in its second wave, which began in May 2024, coinciding with European elections.
The network published a vast quantity of misleading content hostile to Qatar in multiple languages, including Arabic, Spanish, French, and English. This content on Facebook alone reached 41 million users, with misleading advertisements estimated to cost $272,000 and reaching 61% of France's residents, according to the investigation.
The campaign also garnered millions of views and impressions on X. Despite the removal of some of the network’s assets on Facebook, such as pages and fake accounts, some remain active on X to this day.
The Campaign Aims To Stoke Hostility Against the Qatari Mediator
According to the investigation, the campaign appeared designed to stoke hostility and provoke negative reactions against Qatar, especially in the U.S., the U.K., and the European Union, through the dissemination of misleading information and propaganda.
Another apparent goal, according to co-author Sohan D’Souza, is to make any "institutional relationship with Qatar" dangerous and unwanted. He added that this could be an attempt to manipulate current tensions in the Middle East by tarnishing Qatar’s reputation as a mediator between Hamas and Israel and inciting negative international sentiment towards the country.
Not Just a Digital Campaign: It Included Live Tactics Too
The network’s tactics to defame Qatar were part of a larger strategy, not only on social media but also through live activities in notable places, aimed at maximizing the campaign’s impact.
One of the most notable aspects of the campaign was its focus on influencing by engaging active figures and targeting important political events to promote the campaign’s messages. For instance, an advertisement targeting Qatar was shown in late February 2024 during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the annual meeting of American conservatives. The video included calls to impose sanctions on Qatar, claiming it represents a security threat to the U.S. This advertisement aired before the speech of former U.S. President Donald Trump, drawing attention to the campaign’s anti-Qatar messages.
The conference also featured an advertisement for a new website called “Shame on Qatar,” designed to promote allegations that Doha funds “terrorists” and calling for a boycott of Qatari-owned establishments such as Harrods in London, the French football club Paris Saint-Germain, and the New York Plaza Hotel.
The campaign also focused on running ads for another website called “It's in Your Hands,” which was part of the plan to target Sheikha Moza, wife of the former Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, claiming that she had not used her alleged influence over Hamas to secure the release of the Israeli hostages captured by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The campaign against Sheikha Moza included display ads shown in New York and fabricated videos on the internet, manipulated through deepfake technology to make Sheikha Moza appear to support Hamas.
These ads were covered by several media outlets, such as the New York Post and the Jerusalem Post. The billboard displaying the ad is owned by Outfront Media in New York, according to open-source analyses conducted by D'Souza and Jones, while the company did not respond to inquiries from AFP about the identity of the ad's sponsor.
The Network Organized Media and Journalistic Campaigns Against Qatar on the Internet
The network played an important role in coordinating misleading attacks on articles and information related to Qatar on Wikipedia, using multiple accounts, some of which were old and hacked. Additionally, the network extensively utilized artificial intelligence to generate content, particularly during the second wave of the campaign.
Examples of published content included attempts to portray Qatar as a global threat and to direct personal attacks against members of the ruling family in Qatar. The campaign also focused on depicting Muslims as a problem for secularism in France and as a security and cultural threat to Europe, linking Qatar to the flow of immigration into Europe.
Moreover, the network created an online petition on the Change.org platform through a fake organization, gathering more than 7,500 signatures. This petition was promoted online by some celebrities and organizations. Change.org is a non-profit website that allows individuals to create and sign electronic petitions in support of social and political causes.
High-Level Coordination and Advanced Resources in the Campaign
The investigation revealed that the network operated using complex infrastructure and advanced technical tactics. The researchers explained that electronic and non-electronic campaigns were interconnected, involving overlapping distribution and coordination in publishing, advertisements, and website hosting structures. According to the investigation, this illustrates how easy it is to discredit a person or an entire country in the age of disinformation, without revealing the real perpetrators.
The investigation drew upon a wide range of supporting evidence, including photos of street advertisements, video clips, and leaflets collected by the researchers to analyze and document the operation. Tracing links between various smear campaigns led the researchers and AFP to identify several key figures involved, such as a Vietnamese hacker, an American educator-influencer, and a Christian cleric. Each appears to represent a facade concealing the thread that leads to the mastermind behind the campaign.
Deceptive Smear Campaigns Targeting Qatar Since the Start of the Gaza War
It is noteworthy that since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, the state of Qatar has been subjected to previous misleading smear campaigns, as it played the role of mediator in the ongoing negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza. On February 15, 2024, the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development criticized the decision to close Texas A&M University in Qatar, which it considered to be the result of the university being influenced by a widespread disinformation campaign targeting Qatari educational institutions.
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