In recent weeks, the conflict involving Iran has expanded into an unconventional arena: the social media meme war. Former U.S. President Donald Trump has frequently employed AI-generated memes to comment on the situation, using imagery that ranges from absurd to provocative. One example featured a U.S. Navy ship shooting down an Iranian drone accompanied by the phrase “Lasers: Bing, Bing, GONE!!!” Another series of posts showed Iranian oil tankers being blown up, coinciding with a Pentagon pause in military strikes. These memes, often chaotic and crude, highlight the growing role of social media as a source of news and political communication, with more than a third of Americans reportedly relying primarily on these platforms for information.
Trump’s use of memes is mirrored by Iranian state-affiliated accounts, which have launched their own trolling campaigns, notably on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). The Iranian embassies in Zimbabwe and South Africa have posted AI-generated images and videos, including a depiction of zombified Jeffrey Epstein smiling at the destruction of Iranian hospitals and a bizarre clip of Trump singing about blockades. Analysts at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue have described this tactic as “shitposting as statecraft,” with Iran attempting to position itself as a witty, self-aware underdog. The approach has generated significant engagement online and may represent a new model for non-traditional propaganda in future conflicts.
Memes, derived from the Greek word mimema meaning "imitation," are designed to be catchy, easily shareable ideas—often images or videos with simple text—intended to be replicated across the internet. Their open, collaborative nature allows users to adapt and remix content, making them a powerful tool in digital communication. While often humorous, memes can serve political purposes as well. Trump’s posts, which sometimes depict himself as heroic figures such as a king or fighter pilot, serve not only to entertain his base but also to provoke opponents, challenging them to respond seriously or risk appearing overly sensitive.
The origins of internet memes can be traced back to the late 1980s, when Mike Godwin, then a law student, sought a way to defuse heated online arguments by introducing “Godwin’s Law”—the notion that any online discussion eventually includes a comparison to Nazis or Hitler. Godwin, now a technology lawyer, framed this as a form of “memetic engineering” inspired by the cultural transmission concept popularized by Richard Dawkins’s 1976 book, The Selfish Gene. Initially, memes often poked fun at their creators or the community itself, but over time, they have been co-opted for wider commercial and political use, leading to more outwardly targeted humor.
The meme format’s open nature means that original creators often lose control over how their work is used. For instance, Pepe the Frog, a creation of cartoonist Matt Furie, was appropriated by far-right groups for racist and antisemitic purposes despite Furie winning legal settlements to restrict its misuse.
Experts caution, however, that the increasing use of memes as tools for wartime propaganda tends to dilute their meaning. The simplicity that makes memes accessible also limits their nuance, potentially reducing complex geopolitical issues to empty slogans or flat jokes. Godwin himself has expressed concern that current conflict-based memes diverge sharply from his original vision of memes as thought-provoking interventions, describing the present state of meme warfare as a “substitute for thought” rather than a catalyst for deeper reflection.
As the Iran conflict continues, the rise of memes as vehicles for state-sponsored messaging signals a shift in how information and influence are contested in modern geopolitical struggles. This emerging digital battlefield blurs the lines between humor, propaganda, and political discourse, raising questions about the evolving role of social media in international relations.