Probe uncovers ‘largest’ anti-Qatar disinformation campaign
Qatar, a seasoned mediator, has been at the forefront of mediation efforts since the beginning of Israel’s, widely referred to as, genocidal war in Gaza on October 7.
AFP and disinformation experts uncovered a major campaign targeting Qatar with the goal of vilifying it for its crucial mediating role between Israel and Hamas since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip.
Published on Sunday, the investigation traced back the hidden hands behind the campaign, which disinformation researchers described as “the largest to ever target” Qatar.
The campaign attempted to paint the Gulf mediator in a negative light in the West and was specifically identified by AFP in the United States, the United Kingdom and across the European Union.
Some of the websites called for boycotting and imposing sanctions on Qatar while others targeted members of the Qatari royal family, including Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the mother of Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
Sohan Dsouza, a London-based researcher formerly with the MIT Media Lab, told AFP that a likely goal is to make any “institutional relationship with Qatar radioactive” and could be taking advantage of the ongoing war in Gaza to “advance a latent anti-Qatar agenda.”
Qatar has been at the forefront of mediation efforts and hosted the Hamas political office since 2012 at the U.S.’ request in order to maintain a channel of communication.
Last year, it mediated the release of 109 Israeli captives out of 251 held by Hamas under a week-long truce, before ceasefire efforts stalled under Israel’s non-stop attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Despite its pivotal role, Qatar has been on the receiving end of criticism mainly by Israeli officials and right-wing Western diplomats.
Suspicious websites and petitions
The French news agency attempted to trace back the origins of the campaign, but found that proxies were used in what seemed to be an attempt to hide the main person or entity behind them.
Instead, it found a Vietnamese hacker, an influential educator and a U.S.-based Christian faith leader used to promote the campaigns.
One of the websites leading such campaigns include “Shame on Qatar”, which calls for boycotting Qatari-owned or funded brands, including the iconic Harrods, as well as the New York Plaza hotel.
The website publishes in English, French and Spanish in what seems to be an attempt to influence more people. It also accuses Qatar of “controlling Al-Jazeera to spread hate speech,” echoing unfounded accusations previously made by Israeli officials.
The website was also featured in an ad at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the U.S. in February. CPAC did not respond to AFP’s question on who placed the ad at the conference.
Another website the French news agency traced was titled “It’s in your hands” (IIYH), which targets Sheikha Moza while accusing her of being unable to release the Israeli captives, despite the Qatari royal not playing an official role in Doha’s mediation efforts.
The website is linked to a change.org petition attributed to a man named John Anderson, whom AFP identified as the president of an organisation called “Citizens of Humans (sic) Lives.” Researchers said that the name and organisation behind the petition are made up.
IIYH’s ad also appeared in New York’s Times Square in February in one of the billboards, which belonged to ad giant Outfront Media, AFP reported, citing open-source analyses by Dsouza and Qatar-based disinformation expert, Marc Owen Jones.
However, Outfront Media did not respond to AFP’s request for a comment on the ad’s sponsor.
Dsouza and Jones also published an in-depth report titled “The Qatar Plot” on Sunday that unveiled the major disinformation campaign targeting the Gulf country.
The fake change.org petition was promoted in different ways, including by academics. This was seen when U.S. educator Katrina Lantos Swett posted on X a photo of herself holding a poster of a campaign similar to IIYH’s linking the petition.
A spokeswoman for Swett told AFP that she was merely asked to promote the poster by Johnnie Moore, an American evangelical leader, businessman, and advocate for Israel. Moore stopped responding to AFP when asked about Swett’s claim, despite initially accepting the news agency’s request for an interview via LinkedIn.
“We don’t know who organised the campaign, nor is Katrina affiliated in any way,” Swett’s spokesperson said.
The campaigns have also spread out to social media platforms including X, TikTok, YouTube, and Telegram. On Facebook alone, dozens of pages emerged to push out more than 900 anti-Qatar ads.
Margarita Franklin, security public affairs director at Meta—which owns Facebook— told AFP that the activity originated in Vietnam and that it was removed two months ago.
The ads were published in English, French and Arabic at an estimated cost of up to $270,000 and had a minimum reach of 41 million.
“We also blocked links to this campaign’s websites and internet accounts from being shared on our platform,” Franklin noted, adding that the social media giant will publish its findings in its upcoming quarterly threat report in August.
While Jones explained that Vietnam was “simply a proxy”, researchers traced some of the Facebook pages to LT media, a Vietnamese marketing entity.
A representative from LT media denied being involved in the campaign and maintained that he sold the pages to unknown customers via Telegram. He said that he got hacked and lost access to his Facebook “Business Manager.”
“I don’t want to get into trouble,” he wrote to AFP in a WhatsApp message, adding that he was “a middleman.”