Neat rows of tents stretch into the distance across dusty terrain surrounded by mountains. In the center, white structures that make up the words “All eyes on Rafah”, all eyes on Rafah. The image – believed to have been generated with the AI – set the record for shares on Instagram, where over 44 million people added it to their stories. A form of social activism that comes in the aftermath of the massacre caused by an Israeli attack on Sunday evening in a tent camp in the southern area of the Strip.
The massacre caused a wave of indignation and rekindled support for the Palestinians on social media: “All eyes on Rafah” was shared by celebrities, politicians but also simple users all over the world and also in Italy. The sentence – according to international media – was pronounced by Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in Gaza and the West Bank, in February. As Gaza braced for an extension of Israel's ground invasion, the UN official declared: “All eyes are on Rafah.”
The viral image has a signature at the bottom that points to the account of a user named “Chaa” on Instagram. And according to experts, it would be one of the first works of viral activism created by artificial intelligence. And along with the millions of shares, it brought with it criticism against Meta, accused since the beginning of the war of censoring images of the attacks on Gaza by limiting their diffusion or hiding them behind sensitive content warnings.
Matt Navarra, a social media consultant and industry analyst, told NBC News that the image could be a way for activists to share their message by playing by the rules of social media platforms: “The image is probably circumventing part of the automated control on the platform, because it is an AI-generated image and there is nothing that is extremely dangerous or controversial.”