An investigation has revealed that online networks are producing AI-generated Holocaust images and stories to drive traffic on Facebook, spreading fabricated content that quickly goes viral. Among the manipulated posts are fabricated depictions of children who are claimed to be Auschwitz victims; staged images of couples at camp fences, and invented portrayals of prisoners playing music. Many of the names, identities, and story details in these posts are completely fictional.
Holocaust organisations say the trend is deeply offensive and causes pain to those who lived through the atrocities. “Here we have somebody making up the stories… for some kind of strange emotional game that is happening on social media,” said Pawel Sawicki, spokesperson for the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland, speaking to the BBC. “This is not a game. This is a real world, real suffering and real people that we want to and need to commemorate.”
Dr. Robert Williams from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance added that survivors feel a “certain sense of sadness this has been allowed to happen,” telling the BBC, “They feel like their efforts haven’t been enough. That’s a very sad thing to consider because the last of the survivors will soon leave us.”
Spammers exploit Meta’s monetisation
Investigators traced many of the false Holocaust posts to content creators in Pakistan and other countries, where producing viral Facebook material can generate income through monetization schemes. One user, Abdul Mughees, circulated screenshots suggesting he had earned $20,000, though those claims could not be independently confirmed.
A Pakistani content creator, Fazal Rahman, told the BBC that pages with hundreds of thousands of followers can earn up to $1,000 per month, with Western views worth far more than those from Asia. “History as a topic was a reliable driver of online traffic,” he explained.
Researchers warn that this incentive model fuels a surge of low-quality AI output, sometimes called “AI slop,” which includes fabricated Holocaust materials.
The fabricated images have been especially painful for survivors’ relatives. “When I see that they post these images, it almost seems like it’s mocking … like we could just artificially recreate that loss,” said New Yorker Shaina Brander, whose grandmother survived the Holocaust, speaking to AFP. “You can’t make an AI photo to bring that image back to her.”
Meta’s response
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, said the AI-generated Holocaust images themselves do not technically violate its content policies but confirmed that it had removed certain accounts linked to the Holocaust spam.
A company spokesperson told the BBC: “We removed the Pages and Groups shared with us and disabled the accounts behind them for violating our policies on spam and inauthentic behaviour.”
However, critics argue that this response is inadequate, warning that Holocaust distortion undermines decades of education and remembrance efforts.
The Holocaust killed more than six million people. Authentic photographs from inside Nazi camps are scarce, serving as vital and painful evidence of atrocities. Experts warn that AI manipulation not only insults victims and survivors but also risks confusing future generations.
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