DOHA, Qatar — Pseudo-journalists spread false information. Trolls disseminate violent threats. And war propaganda is camouflaged as unbiased news, just the way sappers conceal explosive devices under hostile soil. From over 5,000 miles away in Qatar, exiled opponents and paid critics are waging an online battle to push back against the Qatari government’s attempt to minimise their influence. But this is only one among several disinformation efforts that have gained momentum around Europe and North America. The unifying element of the vast web coalescing into a chorus of conservative pageantry: Each thread leads them back to Doha. The operations rebrand longstanding Islamophobic conspiracies but rely on familiar tools, such as dark-money ad buys, front NGOs and conservative conferences, to frame Qatar as “radioactive” to Western politicians and voters, December 7, 2025.
How far-right story lines made Qatar an international villain
At the heart of the new wave is “The Qatar Plot,” a multi-platform influence operation tracked by disinformation scholars Marc Owen Jones and Sohan Dsouza. Their findings, which they summarised in an opinion essay that was published on Monday by Al Jazeera, describe the shadowy network flooding Facebook, X, YouTube, TikTok and Telegram with anti-Qatar, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim messaging aimed at tens of millions of users throughout Europe, the United States and the Middle East. Jones and Dsouza’s book on Al Jazeera tracks how the campaign used AI-generated cartoons, front groups and petitions to connect Qatar with an alleged “Islamisation” of Europe.
Meta would later announce the same operation in an adversarial threat report, noting that at least 978 Facebook ads were used alongside a sprawling network of pages focused on Qatari stories, many of which promoted anti-immigrant and Islamophobic content on the eve of the 2024 European Parliament and UK elections. A follow-up investigation by Byline Times said Meta had estimated the cost of just the Facebook portion at about £1.2 million, and that it was “one of the largest” influence operations to date logged by the company. That reporting also revealed the role of opaque intermediaries and a Vietnamese proxy firm that the operation used to disguise its true sponsors.
Slam Book of the Gulf’s ruling class, including influencers and think tanks, as well as the anti-Qatar feedback loop.
Disinformation intelligence specialist Marc Owen Jones writes in a new op-ed that leading far-right influencers are ramping up online campaigns that have suddenly pivoted towards Qatar. He cites US activist Laura Loomer, who has reinvented herself as a self-proclaimed expert on “Qatar infiltration”, and British anti-Islam agitator Tommy Robinson, who has promoted a “F**k Qatar” slogan and video series targeting Qatari investments in the United Kingdom. Alongside, they present Qatar as the puppet master responsible for everything, from student protests to immigration policy to disappearances.
The very same column in fact points out that previously Robinson’s financial support has included funds from the US-based Middle East Forum while think tanks like the Middle East Forum itself as well as Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism have developed, according to Jones, an “obsession” with Qatar – frequently framing the Gulf state via a lens of Muslim Brotherhood and ‘Eurabia’ conspiracy theories. There is no public evidence directly linking any of these organisations to the Qatar Plot operation, but researchers say the narratives they promote online often overlap with themes pushed through the clandestine ad campaigns, aiding in mainstreaming the notion of Qatar as a uniquely dangerous sponsor of Islamist influence in Western societies.
Years of anti-Qatar information warfare
The current wave is founded on nearly a decade of information warfare against Qatar, especially since the Saudi-Emirati-led blockade in 2017. A 2018 report by the public-radio program The World documented Saudi- and UAE-linked groups that funded an anti-Qatar website dubbed “The Qatar Insider,” as well as a #BoycottQatar ad blitz and a documentary that screened at Washington’s Hudson Institute, seeking to erode U.S. public support for Doha. That campaign included deceptive infographics, television spots and social media ads that presented Qatar as a hotbed of terrorism financing.
In 2020, Coda Story reported on a separate anti-Qatar operation that created fake journalist personas who managed to place opinion pieces in dozens of right-leaning outlets, lauding the United Arab Emirates and attacking Qatar and urging the United States to crack down harder against Iran and Turkey. The posts used stolen or A.I.-generated profile pictures and fake biographies to sidestep editorial scrutiny. In the same year, an Al Jazeera feature by Jones detailed how Saudi influencers and a “vast network” of sock-puppet accounts made it look like there really was a coup happening in Qatar with doctored videos and hacked profiles — despite the fact that it never entered Arab mainstream media. That episode foreshadowed the manoeuvres now playing out on a much grander scale.
Qatar, the far right and a broader culture war
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue’s research shows that Qatar has also become a flashpoint in European far-right culture wars. In 238 German-language Telegram channels during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, ISD found almost a third of messages about the tournament blended anti-feminist language with anti-Muslim hate via derision of LGBTQ+ rights campaigns, criticism of “woke” footballers and labelling Qatar a “Wahhabi Islam wonderland.” The report found that Qatari debates were frequently exploited as a platform for guild, homophobia and ethnonationalist rhetoric.
Parallel reporting by The New Arab and AFP has linked the newer anti-Qatar operation to an ecosystem of professionally designed websites and offline stunts, including “Shame on Qatar” (that seeks boycotts of Qatari-owned assets) and “It’s in Your Hands” (whose site encourages people to take action), that are directed against Moza bint Nasser, Sheikh Tamim’s mother. One ran during the Conservative Political Action Conference in the United States, and another on a Times Square billboard; both directed viewers to a Change. An org petition authored by a fictional activist and a non-existent organisation. Meta said the network began with accounts operated through a Vietnamese marketing outfit that investigators believe had been used as a cutout for concealed sponsors.
Qatar Fights Back: When weapons systems come under scrutiny, they often respond with disinformation or other forms of denial.
The government of Qatar has consistently denied the accusations promoted by these campaigns. In statements issued by its embassy in Washington this year, Doha has called recent allegations that it trained Hamas fighters “categorically false and slanderous,” part of a “well-funded campaign” to damage Qatar’s relationship with the United States and scuttle any role it might play as a mediator in Gaza. The embassy added Qatar “categorically rejects and condemns antisemitism, Islamophobia and hate speech in all its forms” and would not be thwarted from its diplomatic activity.
For analysts, the anti-Qatar push has shown how neatly far-right grievances, Islamophobia and foreign-policy feuds can converge in opaque digital operations. The Qatar Plot report and Meta’s own threats to release its threat disclosures have added a new layer of questions about how social platforms vet political advertisers, identify foreign attempts at cross-border manipulation, and share — or not — with independent researchers. With more elections on the horizon, both sides of the Atlantic, specialists say they doubt Qatar will be the last to be transformed into a conspiratorial villain — or targeted by coordinated online campaigns with their true authors in hiding.
