Explosive Media

{{Short description|Iranian digital media platform}} {{Infobox organization | name = Explosive Media | full_name = | native_name = اخبار انفجاری | native_name_lang = fa | logo = File:Explosive_Media.png | logo_size = | logo_alt = | logo_caption = | image = | image_size = | image_alt =  | caption = | map =  | map_size =  | map_alt = | map_caption = | map2 =  | map2_size = | map2_alt = | map2_caption = | mapframe = yes | abbreviation = | nickname = Akhbar Enfejari | pronunciation = | pronounce_ref = | pronounce_comment = | named_after = | predecessor = | merged_into =  | successor = | formation = 2025 | founder =  | founding_location = | dissolved =  | merger =  | type =  | tax_id =  | registration_id =  | status =  | purpose =  | professional_title =  | headquarters = | location = Iran | coordinates =  | origins = | region_served =  | products =  | services = | methods =  | fields =  | membership =  | num_members_year =  | language = English, Persian | owner =  | secretary_general =  | leader_title =  | leader_name = | leader_title2 = | leader_name2 = | leader_title3 = | leader_name3 = | leader_title4 = | leader_name4 = | board_of_directors = | key_people = | main_organ =  | publication =  | parent_organization =  | subsidiaries = | secessions = | affiliations = | ror_id =  | budget = | budget_year = | revenue = | revenue_year = | disbursements = | expenses = | expenses_year = | endowment = | endowment_year = | funding =  | num_staff = | num_staff_year = | num_volunteers = | num_volunteers_year = | num_students = | num_students_year = | awards = | website =  | remarks = | former_name =  | footnotes = | bodystyle = }}

'''Explosive Media''' (also known as '''Explosive News,''' {{Langx|fa|اخبار انفجاری|Akhbar Enfejari|"Explosive News"}}<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dagres |first=Holly |title=Update V from The Iranist |url=https://www.theiranist.com/p/update-v-from-the-iranist-f22 |access-date=12 April 2026|date=3 April 2026|website=TheIranist.com }}</ref>) is an Iranian digital media enterprise known for producing AI-generated videos of a satirical nature about Iran–United States relations for the Iranian government.<ref name="BBCShea">{{cite news |last1=Shea|first1=Matt|title=We spoke to the man making viral Lego-style AI videos for Iran. Experts say it's powerful propaganda |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjd8jrd1vnyo |access-date=April 12, 2026 |work=BBC News |date=April 12, 2026}}</ref><ref name="tny"/> Its short films during the 2026 Iran War—produced in the style of Lego movies and lampooning the U.S. side in the conflict—were widely shared both by Iranian and American social-media accounts becoming, according to ''The New Yorker'', "inescapable artifacts" of the war.<ref name="tny"/> Within a month following the outbreak of hostilities, the organization's videos had accrued millions of views and achieved widespread virality.<ref name="Murray2026">{{cite web |last1=Murray |first1=Conor |title=Pro-Iran Videos Flood Social Media—Including A Lego Version Of Trump—But X, Meta, TikTok Are Silent |url=http://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2026/03/28/pro-iran-videos-flood-social-media-including-a-lego-versions-of-trump-but-x-meta-tiktok-are-silent/ |website=Forbes |access-date=8 May 2026 |language=en}}</ref> This was accomplished through the groups in-depth understanding of American culture and media.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Gilbert |first=David |title=The Pro-Iran Meme Machine Trolling Trump With AI Lego Cartoons |url=https://www.wired.com/story/inside-the-pro-iran-meme-machine-trolling-trump-with-ai-lego-cartoons/ |access-date=10 April 2026|date=9 April 2026|magazine=Wired |issn=1059-1028}}</ref>

Explosive Media was established in 2025, initially producing short commentary videos before transitioning its output to animated satirical films.<ref name="tny"/> A representative of Explosive Media described the outfit as an anonymous "student-led media team with a background in social activism" unconnected to government.<ref name="tny">{{cite magazine |last1=Chayka |first1=Kyle |title=The Team Behind a Pro-Iran, Lego-Themed Viral-Video Campaign |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/the-team-behind-a-pro-iran-lego-themed-viral-video-campaign |access-date=April 5, 2026 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=April 2, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Inside Iran's meme factory – who is behind their viral campaign |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/world/iran-war-lego-memes-propaganda-b2951116.html |access-date=April 5, 2026 |work=The Independent |date=April 4, 2026}}</ref> In an interview with the BBC, a representative said that the Iranian government was a "customer" of the enterprise, which had received direct commissions for several projects from Iranian government officials.<ref name="BBCShea"/> thumb|An Iranian AI-generated Lego-style propaganda video produced by Explosive Media

[[File:Explosive Media L O S E R.webm|thumb|Generative AI music video of the song "L O S E R" by Explosive Media. ]]

==Content analysis== The videos are produced in English and target Western audiences, often incorporating references to American politics.<ref name="Murray2026"/> Marc Owen Jones, a professor at Northwestern University in Qatar, described the Lego videos as very good and well thought out with a lot of details in them. He also noted there was a real story behind the videos, unlike American propaganda, which he felt mostly relied on Hollywood movie clips.<ref name="AlJazeera2026">{{cite news |last=Chughtai |first=Alia |date=17 April 2026 |title='Vengeance for all': How Iran's Lego videos won narrative war against Trump |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/17/vengeance-for-all-how-irans-lego-videos-won-narrative-war-against-trump |access-date=25 April 2026 |work=Al Jazeera}}</ref> One widely-shared clip depicted Lego versions of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sitting beside Satan, with Trump holding a binder marked "Epstein Files" before launching a rocket at Iran, followed by a sequence showing the aftermath of a strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed at least 175 people.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wintour |first1=Patrick |title=Viral victory: Iran is beating the land of tech bros in the social media wars |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/15/iran-beating-us-social-media-wars |access-date=9 May 2026 |work=The Guardian |date=15 April 2026}}</ref><ref name="Murray2026"/> Another video featured an AI-generated rap containing the hook "L.O.S.E.R." and flipped Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan into "MIGA" ("Make Iran Great Again"), showing a sweaty Trump being questioned about the Epstein files and lost in a maze designed like the Iranian flag.<ref name="Murray2026"/> Pete Hegseth, America's secretary of war, is shown as a vomiting drunk with crusader tattoos.<ref name="hit">{{Cite web |date=2026-04-19 |title=In the AI propaganda war, Iran is winning |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/in-the-ai-propaganda-war-iran-is-winning-101776575099394.html |access-date=2026-05-13 |website=Hindustan Times |language=en}}</ref>

Graphika traced an early video—showing a Lego Trump waking in a cold sweat during an Iranian attack on U.S. warships—to the Telegram account of Explosive Media. Within an hour of the original post, the video was reposted by the Tasnim News Agency (affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) and by RT, the Russian state media outlet; the RT repost earned 850,000 views on X.<ref name="Murray2026"/>

The group told Al Jazeera that the green and red colours prominent in the animations follow Shia tradition, with green symbolising Husayn ibn Ali's fight for justice against oppression and red representing the oppressor. One video, titled "One Vengeance For All" and released on 29 March 2026, depicted missiles bearing dedications to victims of US actions—including Native Americans, survivors of the Abu Ghraib prison, and the passengers of Iran Air Flight 655—before showing statues of Trump and Netanyahu collapsing.<ref name="AlJazeera2026">{{cite news |last=Chughtai |first=Alia |date=17 April 2026 |title='Vengeance for all': How Iran's Lego videos won narrative war against Trump |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/17/vengeance-for-all-how-irans-lego-videos-won-narrative-war-against-trump |access-date=25 April 2026 |work=Al Jazeera}}</ref>

Similar Lego-style satirical videos were produced by other Iranian accounts, such as PersiaBoi and Southern Punk, and the format spread to Pakistan, where the outlet Nukta media created its own version ahead of Iran–US negotiations in Islamabad on 11 April 2026.<ref name="AlJazeera2026"/>

== Reception ==

=== Public reaction === According to an analysis by Cyabra, the AI-generated LEGO style videos from tens of thousands of accounts received 145 million views in the first weeks of the war.<ref name="Murray2026"/> A narrower Cyabra study of 47 coordinated accounts found that their videos received 40 million views, primarily on TikTok.<ref name="Murray2026" /> On Instagram, Explosive Media's most popular post, featuring Lego Trump and Netanyahu, had accrued more than 260,000 views, while a single repost on X from a Brazilian user with nearly 400,000 followers gained 2.5 million views.<ref name="Murray2026" /> Joseph Bodner and Krysia Sikora of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a pro-democracy NGO, found that two pro-Iran networks had accumulated more than a billion views on X in the first month of the war.<ref name="hit"/>

The clips were adopted by No Kings protesters in the United States, who used the anti-Trump imagery in their demonstrations.<ref name="tny" /> === Description as slopaganda === In 2025, philosophers Mark Alfano and Michał Klincewicz coined the term "slopaganda" to describe AI-generated propaganda, using Trumps AI generated images as an example. Following Explosive Media's videos, they labelled it as a further example of slopaganda.<ref name="AlfanoKlincewicz">{{cite news |last1=Alfano |first1=Mark |last2=Klincewicz |first2=Michał |date=8 April 2026 |title=AI-generated Lego videos and Trump's poo-bombing: welcome to the Iran-US slopaganda wars |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/08/lego-videos-iran-trump-ai-video-meme-propaganda-movie-animation |access-date=25 April 2026 |work=The Guardian |type=Opinion}}</ref> ''The New Yorker'' writer Kyle Chayka described the videos as “perhaps the world’s most potent example of slopaganda yet, changing hearts and minds—or at least generating lots of clicks—one exploding toy battleship at a time.”<ref name="tny"/> According to Emma Briant, a leading propaganda expert, slopaganda is too weak a term to capture the power of the videos which she described as "highly sophisticated."<ref name="BBCShea" />

== Social media == ===Termination of accounts=== In April 2026, the group's accounts on YouTube and Instagram were terminated.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026-04-25 |title=نقطه‌زنی رسانه‌ای ایران در «جنگ سوم تحمیلی» |url=https://www.mehrnews.com/news/6811184|access-date=2026-05-05 |website=Mehr News Agency |language=fa}}</ref><ref name="tny" /> The ban was described by Iran's foreign minster spokesman as a move aimed at suppressing the truth about the war by US-Israel against Iran.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=Al Jazeera |title=Iran slams YouTube ban on pro-Iranian group's Lego-style AI videos |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/14/iran-slams-youtube-ban-on-pro-iranian-groups-lego-style-ai-videos |access-date=2026-05-05 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> An Explosive Media spokesperson told ''Al Jazeera'' that Google removed it on the grounds of "promoting violence", a characterization the group disputed, arguing that Lego-style brick animations are not inherently violent.<ref name="AlJazeera2026" /> The BBC reported that social media platforms had been shutting down accounts distributing the Lego-style videos, but new accounts continued to appear rapidly.<ref name="BBCShea" /> After YouTube and Instagram removed Explosive Media accounts in late March 2026, ''The New Yorker'' noted that the videos continued to circulate widely on X and other platforms, and the bans “seemed to have done little to slow their reach.”<ref name="tny" />

''Politico'' reported that the removal of the original Explosive Media YouTube channel "only amplified interest", with one re-upload of the video reaching 2 million views and the team's latest video garnering 2,000 retweets on X within hours of posting.<ref name="Politico2026">{{cite news |last=Lam |first=Sabrina |title=Iran unleashes its AI slop arsenal |url=https://www.politico.com/newsletters/forecast/2026/04/07/iran-unleashes-its-ai-slop-arsenal-00862545 |access-date=13 May 2026 |work=Politico |date=7 April 2026}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading== * {{cite magazine |last1=DiResta |first1=Renée |title=When Virality Is The Message: The New Age of AI Propaganda |url=https://time.com/article/2026/04/02/when-virality-is-the-message-the-new-age-of-ai-propaganda/ |access-date=April 5, 2026 |magazine=Time |date=April 2, 2026}}

==External links== * [https://t.me/ExplosiveMedia Telegram channel]

Category:2025 establishments in Iran Category:2026 Iran war Category:Satire Category:Iran–United States relations