An international network of spammers are posting AI-generated images of Holocaust victims on Facebook, a BBC investigation into “AI slop” has found.

Organisations dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust say the images are leaving survivors and families distressed.

They have also criticised Facebook’s parent company Meta, saying it allows users on its platform to turn the atrocity into an “emotional game”.

There are only a handful of genuine photos from inside the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War Two.

But in recent months, AI spammers have posted fake images purporting to be from inside the camp, such as a prisoner playing a violin or lovers meeting at the boundaries of fences – attracting tens of thousands of likes and shares.

“Here we have somebody making up the stories… for some kind of strange emotional game that is happening on social media,” said Pawel Sawicki, a spokesperson for the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland.

“This is not a game. This is a real world, real suffering and real people that we want to and need to commemorate.”

The BBC has tracked many of these images to the accounts of a network of Pakistan-based content creators who collaborate closely on how to make money on Facebook. They are gaming Meta’s content monetisation (CM) program, an “invite-only” system which pays users for high-performing content and views.

One account named Abdul Mughees, listed as living in Pakistan, posted screenshots claiming to have earned $20,000 through social media monetisation schemes, including Meta’s. Another post appears to show the account accrued more than 1.2bn views on content across the span of four months.

We have not been able to independently verify any creator’s earnings.

Among the many Facebook posts from Abdul Mughees’ account are several AI generated photos of fictional Holocaust victims and fake stories that included a child hiding under floorboards or a baby being left on train tracks outside a concentration camp.

The BBC’s analysis of the online activities of the account and dozens of others like it suggests they are posting almost exclusively “AI slop”.

The term refers to low quality AI-generated images and text, usually produced in large volumes and spammed across social media.

Auschwitz has become a popular topic for history-themed pages and groups. Some with names such as “Timeless Tales” and “History Haven” were posting more than 50 times a day.

In June, the Auschwitz Museum warned accounts like these were stealing its posts, processing them through AI models and often warping historical details or fabricating narratives and victims entirely. In a Facebook post, the Museum said these images were a “dangerous distortion” which “disrespects victims and harasses their memory”.

Mr Sawicki said the tsunami of fake images was undermining the Auschwitz Memorial’s mission to raise awareness of the Holocaust.

“We already started getting comments on our Facebook posts that ‘oh, this is an AI-generated photograph’,” he said.

Survivors and families are also disturbed by the surge of Holocaust AI slop, according to an organisation promoting Holocaust education and research.

“They don’t quite understand what they’re seeing,” said Dr Robert Williams, from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

He said Holocaust survivors were feeling a “certain sense of sadness this has been allowed to happen” despite government and philanthropic investments into awareness campaigns.

“They feel like their efforts haven’t been enough,” he said.

“That’s a very sad thing to consider because the last of the survivors will soon leave us.”

Meta does not intentionally encourage users to post false stories, including about the Holocaust, but its system rewards posts with high engagement. The BBC has also found AI slop accounts based in India, Vietnam, Thailand, and Nigeria.

To understand why these networks are mass producing specific types of content, the BBC spoke with a Pakistani man Fazal Rahman, who is enrolled in several social media content monetisation schemes and says this work has become his sole source of income.

While he says he does not create any Holocaust images himself, and did not know what the word meant when initially asked, he operates in the same Facebook groups as those who do.

Mr Rahman said a Facebook page with 300,000 followers could earn its owner $1,000 USD a month if it had “premium content” catered to higher-value audiences from the UK, US, and Europe. He estimates Western views were worth eight times more per post than those from Asia.

He said history as a topic was a reliable driver of online traffic.

Other creators appear to agree. The BBC has seen step-by-step instructional videos on how popular AI models could be used to generate continuous fake history images and text.

In one video, the creator asked the AI chatbot to list key historical events they could use as a basis for content creation and was given the Holocaust as one of its answers.

Other advice given by some creators include tips on how to deceive audiences, by having their page impersonate other entities to build audiences and become eligible for Meta’s CM program.

Facebook has a page transparency feature, which allows users to track the previous names of pages. Using this, the BBC found many pages that had posted Holocaust AI slop that once posed as a range of different entities including official firefighting departments in the US, commercial businesses, and American influencers – all without their consent.

These pages, according to creators’ public posts, can also be sold or rented to those looking to break into the content creator market.

The BBC asked Meta about several profiles that had posted Holocaust-themed AI content and also appeared to have engaged in deceptive practices.

Several of the profiles and groups were removed, including ones originally flagged by the Auschwitz Memorial in June.

A spokesperson for the tech giant said while those fake images did not violate its content policies, it investigated them and found they broke its rules around impersonation or trading of pages.

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

AI has been used in the past to commemorate the Holocaust and bring real victims’ stories to life, but the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s Dr Williams warns there’s a risk this can contribute to a sense that Holocaust history is somehow fabricated.

“Any form of extreme manipulation is something that we should shy away from,” he said.

Additional reporting by Umer Draz Nangiana, BBC Urdu

Israel struck Nasser Hospital at least four times during its deadly attack in southern Gaza on Monday, an analysis of new video footage by BBC Verify has found.

The attack, which has attracted international condemnation and widespread anger, reportedly killed at least 20 people, including five journalists.

Initial reports from Gaza said that Israel had struck the hospital twice, with the first blast followed nine minutes later by another which hit first responders and journalists who arrived at the scene.

But new analysis suggests the hospital was struck four times in total. BBC Verify and expert analysis found that two staircases were hit almost simultaneously in the first wave, and while what was thought to be a single later attack was in fact two separate strikes hitting the same place within a fraction of a second.

Israel does not allow international journalists to enter Gaza independently. BBC Verify identified the additional strikes by analysing dozens of videos provided by a freelancer on the ground and material filmed by eyewitnesses that circulated online.

In the first incident, an Israeli strike hit the exterior staircase on the hospital’s eastern side at 10:08 local time (07:08 GMT), killing journalist Hussam Al-Masri who was operating a live TV feed for Reuters.

BBC Verify has now identified another previously unreported blast at a northern wing staircase at practically the same time, which was overshadowed by the “double-tap” strike on the eastern staircase.

New footage shows smoke rising and damage at both staircases, while emergency workers said the hospital’s operating department was hit.

Other videos show an injured person being carried down the northern staircase and the hospital’s nursing director holding shredded and bloodied clothing which he said was being worn by a nurse while she was working in the operating department when it was hit.

N R Jenzen-Jones – the director of Armament Research Services, an arms and munitions intelligence company – said the footage “appears to show interior damage consistent with a relatively small munition, including an entry hole that suggests a munition with a relatively flat trajectory”.

Roughly nine minutes later, while dozens of first responders and journalists gathered on the eastern staircase, Israeli forces struck the facility again.

While the blast was documented by media at the time, frame-by-frame analysis of newly emerged footage clearly shows that two separate projectiles fired by Israeli forces hit the hospital milliseconds apart at an exposed stairwell where journalists and emergency workers had gathered.

Experts disagreed on the type of munition used in the third and fourth strikes.

Some munitions analysts with whom BBC Verify shared footage with identified the projectiles as Lahat missiles, a guided munition which can be fired from tanks, drones and helicopters. Several outlets in Israel have suggested that the munitions used against the hospital were fired by Israeli tanks stationed nearby.

The experts who spoke to BBC Verify said the blasts could not have been caused by a single tank, due to the quick succession in which the munitions hit the hospital.

“If these Lahats were fired from the ground, then at least two tanks would have been involved, as the interval between the two impacts is far too short,” Amael Kotlarski, an analyst with the Janes defence intelligence company, said. “No tank loader could have reloaded that fast.”

Meanwhile, Mr Jenzen-Jones said that the “impact of two projectiles at nearly the exact same moment suggests two tanks may have fired on the target simultaneously”.

Although he said it wasn’t possible to definitively identify the munitions used, the apparent physical characteristics and pattern of flight “suggest a ‘multi-purpose’ tank gun projectile, such as the Israeli M339 model”.

Satellite images reviewed by BBC Verify show IDF forces 2.5km north-east of Nasser Hospital and within firing range on the day of the attack. Other armoured vehicles can also be seen nearby.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had no additional comment on the newly identified blasts when approached by BBC Verify.

Israel’s narrative of the attack has evolved since Monday’s attack. It initially said it had carried out a strike in the area of the hospital, saying that it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals ” and that an initial inquiry would be opened as soon as possible, but provided no justification for the attack.

In the hours that followed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was responsible and that it “deeply regrets the tragic mishap”.

On Tuesday, the IDF said an initial inquiry found that troops had identified a camera positioned by Hamas in the area of the hospital “used to observe the activity of IDF troops”, without providing evidence.

The IDF has not yet acknowledged carrying out more than one strike on the hospital, amid allegations from some international legal experts that it may have violated international law.

Intentionally carrying out attacks on civilians which are “excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated” is prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

“A reasonable attacker must expect scores of civilian casualties since a hospital is full of protected persons,” Professor Janina Dill of Oxford University said.

Prof Dill added that the “mere presence of equipment that belongs to an adversary” does not mean a hospital or medical facility loses its protected status under the laws of war.

At least 247 journalists have been killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to the UN, making it the deadliest conflict for reporters ever documented.

Israel’s military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Almost 62,900 people have been killed in Gaza in the same period, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.