The post that’s been shared by more than 47m people
Social media filled with AI generated image of tent camps for displaced Palestinians with slogan All Eyes on Rafah. The Instagram post has been reposted over 47 million times by celebrities such as Dua Lipa, Lewis Hamilton and Gigi and Bella Hadid. The image and slogan spread like wildfire following an Israeli air strike and fire at a camp for displaced Palestinians, in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, earlier this week.
The Hamas-run health ministry said at least 45 people were killed and hundreds more injured. Israel said it struck two Hamas commanders and that the excessive gunfire might have been caused by a secondary explosion. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the bombing of the school a “tragic mishap,” and condemned the international outpouring of condemnation over the incident.
BBC Arabic found that the image went viral after a young man from Malaysia posted it on social media following the incident. So how did this image end up looking like this?
How did the slogan All Eyes on Rafah become popular?
Word of the killings in Rafah began spreading Tuesday after people posted video clips of Richard Peeperkorn, a representative of the World Health Organization in the occupied Palestinian territories speaking in February. In doing so, he told reporters that “All eyes are on Rafah,” cautioning the Israeli military against assaulting the city.
Since then, All Eyes on Rafah has been seen at demonstrations worldwide and on social media. That AI-generated image showing the slogan has gone viral on social media platforms in the past two days, with over 47 million shares by an Instagram tally Thursday afternoon. The image and motto have also been shared by other stars such as US actor Mark Ruffalo, Indian actress Priyanka Chopra and Syrian actress Kinda Alloush.
How did that image go viral on social media over the past two days?
The All Eyes On Rafah message has spread like wildfire in just two hours but experts who spoke to the BBC cited a number of reasons why. This includes the AI-inspired aspect of the image, the directness of the slogan, how easy it is for Instagram users to repost the image with a couple of clicks, and it appearing in a post by influencers. Media, and campaigning and social change MA course leader at the University of Westminster, Anastasia Kavada — who undertakes research in this area told us that “the most significant ‘feature’ is the timing and the political providing the context for the post according to most people.
It is explained to her that it is going viral, at a moment when morale is “in the crapper” given the news of the strike on the camp in Rafah. The view is shared by Maher Nammari, a specialist in digital marketing and artificial intelligence, telling Al Jazzera that the importance of this incident was not only due to the incident itself, but also to the online exchange following the incident.