AI Fuels Far-Right Propaganda in Europe, Cloaked in False Images
Across the European Union and the U.K., far-right political parties are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to spread their message, often employing deceptive visuals and fueling harmful narratives.
This tactic gained traction during the 2024 European parliamentary elections, experts say, and has continued to escalate since. Just this month, the issue landed on the radar of Meta’s independent oversight board when it launched an investigation into anti-immigration content on Facebook, focusing on a German account disseminating AI-generated imagery paired with inflammatory rhetoric.
This example is not isolated. From fabricated images of women and children eating insects, promoting a conspiracy theory about a global elite in Italy, to Irish groups’ deployment of manipulated images showing a police officer trampling the Irish flag alongside Islamophobic memes following the tragic Southport stabbings in the U.K., AI-powered propaganda is reshaping the far-right’s online presence.
"What we are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg," warned Salvatore Romano, head of research at AI Forensics, which scrutinized materials from parties like France’s National Rally, Reconquête, and Les Patriotes. "What is coming from individuals and beyond the official channels is even worse.”
Common Themes, No Transparent Sourcing
While each country’s far-right movement adapts its messaging to local concerns, a startlingly common aesthetic has emerged across borders. The images often bear a strikingly realistic appearance, experts note, but lack any watermark or identifieable source.
William Allchorn, a senior research fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, attributes this trend to the ease of use of AI tools, which "lowers the barrier to entry for creating content. You don’t need coding skills or anything like that to generate these images. It lowering the barrier to entry also means that ethical concerns about AI are going unaddressed by these groups."
While mainstream political parties appear hesitant to embrace AI-generated materials due to ethical and reputational considerations, “
"
far-right groups seem less restrained," Allchorn observes. Jeremy Robinson, a researcher at the University of Cambridge who specializes in online extremism, adds that "the far right is often more comfortable with ambiguity and blurring lines, and AI fits into that. It allows them to create images that can’t be easily verified, playing into their distrust of information sources."
The European Landscape:
Germany: The German far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party and its supporters have increasingly leaned on AI image generators. Meta’s oversight board’s investigation probes an image featuring a blonde, blue-eyed woman with a "stop" gesture, superimposed with a stop sign and the German flag.
The accompanying text advocates against immigration, citing concerns about an influx of "gang-rape specialists."
In September, the AfD’s Brandenburg branch circulated AI-generated campaign adverts contrasting an idealized Germany with scenes of veiled women and individuals waving LGBTQ+ flags.
The U.K.: Following the Southport knife attacks, which claimed the lives of three young girls, AI technology was deployed to ignite anti-Muslim sentiment with visually misleading content.
Images featuring bearded men posed menacingly outside parliament, juxtaposed with a despairing child with a Union Jack shirt, circulated online with inflammatory captions like: "We must protect our children!".
Tommy Robinson, a prominent far-right figure in the U.K., has incorporated AI-generated images into his online presence as well.
France: AI imagery has become a key component of far-right campaigns in France.
Re ベッド検索 Engineer Salvatore Romano, the director of AI Forensics, said that French far-right parties used AI to create triple threats to utilise
(Photo showing Immanuel Macron and the caption "Plot to Crush European Nations" )
images.
During both the 2024 European and parliamentary elections, items posted online included images of individuals approaching a beach in boats, flickering images of people looking displeased with Macron.
Ireland: Although not home to a powerful far-right party akin to those found in other European nations, Ireland has witnessed a rise in such sentiment, fueled by online platforms.
Following riots in Dublin in November 2023, far-right groups embraced
AI-generated imagery to spread propaganda. One popular meme, featuring the mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor, has been widely discussed
and criticized. The image depicted McGregor standing before
a burning bus evocation theirs sets as anger
Italy:
The populist Lega party has joined the trend of utilizing AI-generated content to promote its message. Among their uploads, evocative and often fear-inducing images including a pregnant man with a beard, a group of individuals in Islamic attire seemingly burning a edition of Dante’s classic, The Divine Comedy, and Macron posing as a fictional "EU soldier.”
These AI-generated images, shared on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, are accompanied by captions rooted in anti-trans and anti-immigrant sentiments. In
a similar fashion, other AI produced imagery from The Lega *shows women
and children eating insects*. These are based on a popular right-wing conspiracy theory that the European Union is pushing for citizens outside
The
The Dangers of AI-Driven Power:
"This technology is trimming away our access to truth," warns Romano. "In addition to posing a worrying threat to democratic processes, disinformation campaigns powered by AI can mask themselves effectively, making it extremely difficult to counter them.”
