An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has uncovered a network of Facebook pages run by young entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka and Pakistan that produce AI-generated content targeting British audiences. The pages, often named with generic British monikers like “Britain Today,” post inflammatory material including Islamophobic memes and far-right conspiracy theories such as the “great replacement theory.” Despite having no interest in UK politics, the creators profit from ad revenue and direct payments from Meta, with one Pakistani creator claiming to earn $1,500 a month and a Sri Lankan creator stating he made $300,000 over his Facebook career.
The content, described as “commercial AI slop,” is designed to provoke engagement and generate income. Creators use generative AI tools to brainstorm ideas, write captions, and produce compelling images and videos, often without fluency in English. In one training video, the Sri Lankan creator told students that AI-generated videos can help political content go viral up to 10 times faster. The financial incentives are particularly strong in the global south, where average incomes are much lower.
The investigation highlights two structural factors enabling this phenomenon: the widespread availability of generative AI tools and Meta’s retreat from content moderation. Over recent years, Meta has made mass redundancies in trust and safety teams, partly due to pressure from the Trump administration. This has allowed harmful content to proliferate, with comment sections under these videos featuring calls for deportation of Muslims and fantasies of ethnic civil war.
The creators operate as part of a “passive income” culture, selling online courses to teach others how to replicate their success. Sooriyapura claimed 2,500 people, mainly Sri Lankans, have graduated from his content academy. While rightwing propaganda is not new, the combination of AI tools and reduced moderation has made it particularly pervasive on social media, contributing to a hostile atmosphere for immigrants and British Muslims.
