Iran Lego channel banned as US losing propaganda war

Iran has proven to be incredibly resilient in their ability to defend themselves against the US and Israel’s war. Their resistance hasn’t been limited to the battlefield either. Surprising many, Iran has deployed wartime propaganda that’s even proving popular with their supposed enemies.

This is no mean feat.

And out of all the propaganda they’ve pumped out, none has been more effective than the Lego videos.

Given the success of this content, it’s unsurprising to see US tech companies closing ranks with the US war machine:

Iran channel: legone but not forgotten

As al Mayadeen covered, YouTube banned the Explosive Media account on 13 April. YouTube’s given reason was “violent content”. As reported:

The suspension came hours after the group’s latest video, a rap animation linking Trump to the Epstein files, went viral, garnering millions of views.

We’re not sure why YouTube chose to blame “violent content” when they could have said Explosive Media are using:

1. The Lego company’s intellectual property.
2. AI (which in most circumstances is dogshit).

Equally, however, there are two clear reasons for allowing the videos:

1. They’re very, very funny.
2. They’re allowing global citizens to bond over their hatred of US imperialism.

Marc Owen Jones noted that while YouTube banned Explosive Media, they’ve left more reprehensible accounts standing:

If you want to know how absurd and biased the banning of the anti-US/Israel war Lego AI Youtube channel for violent content is, look at official accounts belonging to the IDF and the Whitehouse across all platforms. It’s literally videos of real people getting blown up.

Clearly, YouTube takes Lego rights more seriously than human rights.

These videos have proven so effective, by the way, that even right-wingers like Tim Dillon are acknowledging that Iran is winning the propaganda war:

In the clip above, Dillon says:

So we’ve lost. There’s nowhere to go. It’s checkmate. We can’t do the things we think we can.

We’re tweeting. We’re Truth Socialing… We’re trying to win the war on social media. And we’re not even doing that because – can you, do you have the Lego thing up? Can you get that Lego video?

We’re not even winning the shit talking war.

We’re not even winning that.

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The shit talk?

You’d think America would win that, at least.

If we’re going to win one thing, we’re getting bodied by Iranian AI in the war of shit talk.

Truly, how embarrassing.

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We’re the country that invented shit talk, and we’re getting lit up.

Explosive Media

The BBC spoke to the creator behind Explosive Media, who described Iran as a “customer”. The piece noted:

The overriding message of these videos is that Iran is resisting what it sees as an almighty global oppressor: the United States.

This isn’t really up for dispute at this point, given that Trump keeps openly threatening countries around the globe, and also threatening to wipe out entire civilisations. We know the BBC is supposed to be impartial, but saying the sky is blue isn’t bias.

The BBC continued:

The clips are garish and not subtle at all – but that hasn’t put a dent in how vigorously people are sharing and commenting on them.

If the BBC wants sophisticated and subtle, maybe they should resume greenlighting shows like The Thick of It.

The next part was a fair description anyway:

In one of the videos, Donald Trump falls through a whirlwind of “Epstein file” documents as rap lyrics tell us “the secrets are leaking, the pressure is rising”.

In another, George Floyd can be seen under a policeman’s boot as we hear Iran is “standing here for everyone your system ever wronged”.

The next bit was just asinine:

The videos are also littered with factual inaccuracies – so we ask Mr Explosive about them.

In one clip, the Iranian military is shown capturing a downed US fighter-jet pilot. US officials have confirmed the downed airman – who was stranded in a remote, mountainous region of Iran after his aircraft was shot down – was rescued by US special forces on 4 April.

Oh my gosh! You’re telling me the Lego propaganda video contained factual inaccuracies?

Goodness gracious, does this mean president Trump isn’t actually a 1 inch tall plastic doodad?

Good lord.

The interesting question to ask is this: why are people in the West so disgusted with their governments that they share the propaganda of their supposed enemies?

The answer is because our Western governments are disgusting, bloodthirsty capitalists.

The BBC are choosing to treat this phenomenon as a ‘fake news’ problem, anyway, rather than as a symptom of an empire in collapse:

Social media platforms have been shutting down accounts with the Lego-style videos, but new ones seem to pop up just as quickly.

Yes, if only we could stop the AI Lego accounts popping up; then the public would just love all the endless genocide.

So-called ‘cyber warfare expert’ Tine Munk told the BBC:

Traditional diplomacy doesn’t exist here. And it blurs our understanding of what is happening. But it also increases the risk of misinterpretation and escalation.

I don’t know, Tine, I feel like the real risk of escalation comes from Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu constantly escalating the actual war.

The Military Industrial Slopfest

Munk is correct that these accounts keep popping up:

The Americans have worked tirelessly for 80 years to embed a global system of greed and individualism. What that looks like in 2026 is a reality in which the people of the world find novel ways to extract profit from the US’s imperial activity – in this instance through the creation of satirical slop videos.

Recognising that this is all bad doesn’t change the fact that these videos are capturing certain truths. The US is a decadent plastic republic run by a would-be king, and its values are as phony as the videos making fun of it.

Featured image via Explosive Media