How propaganda and free speech swirl as Iran war drags onRob Miraldi |
The horrifying images show the USS Abraham Lincoln — one of the largest nuclear-powered warships ever built — damaged and sinking after an Iranian ballistic missile strike. The ship, currently in the Arabian Sea helping to enforce a blockade of Iran, normally has 5,000 Navy personnel aboard. A hit on the Lincoln would be catastrophic.
The Iranians posted the video as the U.S.-Iran war was at its peak. The problem, their claims to the contrary: The video was fake. The Lincoln was never hit. The images are years old, showing some unknown ship sinking into the ocean. A video of a similar ship engulfed in flames and billowing smoke appeared in a Facebook post in 2025.
And while Iran has been pummeled by American might in this war and the president insists it is defeated, its propaganda has often been sophisticated, reaching millions with the new weapons of war — social media and AI. Here we are in the first war that is nimbly showcasing and dangerously using social media, memes, faked videos and AI manipulations along with some old-fashioned brass-knuckle attacks on press freedom.
Don’t be mistaken: What is being called “slopaganda” or “gameification” is coming from both sides in this war, as propaganda always has. And it is a normal part of warfare. The danger, of course, is that how we receive and retrieve information and news has sharply shifted because of technology. How we recognize or understand who is doing what to whom, and why, gets tougher than ever.
Traditional news briefings on the war seem passé. Instead, this president uses social media to offer a bewildering, crazy-quilt series of messages on the war’s directions. And as a country is being destroyed and hundreds killed, the American side has added startling new elements to this propaganda puzzle.
Highly stylized,........