46 minutes ago

Matt Shea,Presenter, Top Commentand

Laurie Kalus,Producer, Top Comment

At first glance they look like they could be scenes out of a Lego movie, although more vivid and fast-paced.

But these viral AI videos inspired by the instantly recognisable Lego aesthetic feature dying children, fighter jets and US President Donald Trump - and are in fact pro-Iran propaganda.

For our new BBC podcast, Top Comment, we spoke to a representative of Explosive Media, one of the key accounts generating these clips. He wanted us to refer to him as Mr Explosive.

He's a savvy social media operator who initially denies working for the Iranian government. In previous interviews the outlet has said it is "totally independent". But upon further questioning, Mr Explosive admits the regime is a "customer" - something he's never before confirmed publicly.

The overriding message of these videos is that Iran is resisting what it sees as an almighty global oppressor: the United States.

The clips are garish and not subtle at all - but that hasn't put a dent in how vigorously people are sharing and commenting on them.

In one of the videos, Donald Trump falls through a whirlwind of "Epstein file" documents as rap lyrics tell us "the secrets are leaking, the pressure is rising".

In another, George Floyd can be seen under a policeman's boot as we hear Iran is "standing here for everyone your system ever wronged".

"Slopaganda" - coined in an academic paper last year as a play on 'AI slop' - is too weak a term to capture how powerful this "highly sophisticated" content is, says leading propaganda expert Dr Emma Briant.

AI-generated propaganda clips are estimated to have been viewed hundreds of millions of times over the course of the war.

In our video call with Mr Explosive, he appears silhouetted and flanked by red and green light, the colours of the Iranian flag. On his desk there's a green-feathered helmet associated with the Shia warrior Husayn ibn Ali, who features in several of their videos.

He says his team at Explosive Media consists of fewer than ten people who use Lego-style graphics "because it is a world language". Iranian and Russian state media accounts on X regularly share them to millions of followers.

We ask Mr Explosive why the Epstein files feature so heavily in his videos.

He says it's to show the audience the "kind of confrontation they are witnessing" between Iran - which is "seeking truth and freedom" - against "those who associate themselves with cannibals".

This is a reference to the theory that the Epstein files link the Trump administration to cannibalism - a claim for which there is no credible evidence.

The videos are also littered with factual inaccuracies - so we ask Mr Explosive about them.

In one clip, the Iranian military is shown capturing a downed US fighter-jet pilot. US officials have confirmed the downed airman - who was stranded in a remote, mountainous region of Iran after his aircraft was shot down - was rescued by US special forces on 4 April.

Mr Explosive does not accept this, saying: "Possibly there was no lost pilot, there was no rescue operation. Their main goal was to steal uranium from Iran."

When we push back - citing US officials who say the airman is now receiving treatment in Kuwait - he claims: "Only 13% of what Mr Trump says is based on facts."

Explosive Media's airman video has successfully amplified this alternative narrative among English-speaking audiences.

One partisan US-based TikTok influencer - @newswithsteph - told her viewers the Lego videos had been "shockingly accurate so far; they broke the story about the recent US pilot mission that wasn't a rescue mission at all but a special ops mission for uranium".

AI has enabled Iran and others to communicate directly with Western audiences more effectively than ever before, Briant says. They are using tools largely trained on Western data, making them ideal for creating "culturally appropriate" content.

This is what "authoritarian countries wanting to target the West have lacked in the past".

Dr Tine Munk, a cyber warfare expert at Nottingham Trent University, characterises Iran's tactics as "defensive memetic warfare" which the creators see as necessary to combat US rhetoric.

Explosive Media videos first appeared in early 2025 - but their popularity has grown enormously in the wake of the US-Iran war.

The Lego-style clips are also becoming increasingly detailed, showing highly specific Gulf locations including power stations, airports and industrial sites being totally destroyed by Iranian missiles.

In reality, most have only sustained limited damage.

The videos are often produced in "real time" and appear quickly after major developments in the war. One video about the ceasefire agreement was published before any official announcements.

Thousands of people have been killed in Iran, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries, according to officials in these nations. The current conflict started in February after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran.

After some back-and-forth in our conversation, Mr Explosive admits the Iranian government is indeed a "customer" of his company. In earlier Instagram messages, he'd told us his operation had been directly commissioned for multiple projects by Iranian officials.

But Mr Explosive defends his team's relationship with the government saying it was "honourable to work for the homeland". He dismisses the recent mass protests as a "coup" funded by President Trump.

Mr Explosive also rejects allegations we put to him his videos use antisemitic tropes. "Our videos are not antisemitic; our videos are anti-Zionist," he says. Defending the depiction of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drinking blood, he says such imagery highlights the "atrocities committed by him".

Most Iranians are unable to use the internet due to a nationwide internet shutdown. Mr Explosive claims he could contact the BBC using "journalist internet" granted by the Iranian government. Iran is consistently ranked as one of the most repressive countries in the world for press freedom.

Social media platforms have been shutting down accounts with the Lego-style videos, but new ones seem to pop up just as quickly.

It's a form of agile, aggressive internet diplomacy that appears to be here to stay, according to Munk.

Crucially, she adds, it's "cutting out the middlemen, cutting out the press, the mass media, and constantly circulating memes.

"Traditional diplomacy doesn't exist here. And it blurs our understanding of what is happening. But it also increases the risk of misinterpretation and escalation.

"So we are in a kind of limbo."