This is not a game: Meta slammed for Facebook’s AI Holocaust spam problem; what is it

A network of spammers is posting

AI-generated images

of

Holocaust victims

on Facebook, a report claims. Organisations dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust have reportedly said that these fake images are causing distress to survivors and their families. The spammers have created and shared fabricated images that purport to show scenes from inside concentration camps, such as a prisoner playing a violin or lovers meeting at fences. These posts have received tens of thousands of likes and shares. Critics have accused Facebook's parent company,

Meta

, of allowing its platform to be used to turn the atrocity into an "emotional game."In a statement to the BBC,

Pawel Sawicki

, a spokesperson for the

Auschwitz Memorial

in Poland, said: “Here we have somebody making up the stories… for some kind of strange emotional game that is happening on social media. This is not a game. This is a real world, real suffering and real people that we want to and need to commemorate.”

What Meta said about these AI-generated content

Meta said that it has removed several profiles and groups posting Holocaust-themed AI content after finding that they violated rules on impersonation and page trading. However, the company stated that the images themselves did not breach its content policies.

“We removed the Pages and Groups shared with us and disabled the accounts behind them for violating our policies on spam and inauthentic behaviour,” a company spokesperson said.

Why spammers are mass-producing AI Holocaust content

According to the BBC report, a network of Pakistan-based Facebook content creators has been exploiting Meta’s invite-only content monetisation programme, which pays users for high-performing posts. One account, under the name Abdul Mughees, claimed to have earned $20,000 and amassed over 1.2 billion views in just four months, though these earnings remain unverified.To drive engagement, the accounts primarily share low-quality, AI-generated “slop” which includes fabricated Holocaust stories and images of fictional victims. Pages such as Timeless Tales and History Haven publish dozens of posts daily, often recycling material from the Auschwitz Museum and altering it with AI tools.In June, the Auschwitz Museum started condemning such activity, warning that distorted or invented imagery constitutes a “dangerous distortion” that disrespects and harasses Holocaust victims’ memory.The report also mentions a Pakistani content creator, Fazal Rahman, who relies entirely on Facebook monetisation schemes for income. He explained that pages with large followings can earn up to $1,000 a month, with views from Western audiences valued far more than those from Asia. History-themed content, he noted, reliably drives traffic.Creators in the same networks use AI tools to mass-produce fake historical images and posts, which often include Holocaust-related material, and share tutorials on how to deceive audiences. Many pages have also impersonated official organisations or influencers, later being sold or rented to new entrants seeking monetisation access.