Netanyahu is not dead. So why did the internet think he was?
The Global Story
BBC
3.8 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Social media platforms this week have been flooded with a wild rumour: that Benjamin Netanyahu was dead (which he is not). Fake photos and videos of his body, coated with dust and debris, seemed to show that the Israeli prime minister had been killed in an Iranian air strike.
The rumour was false – Netanyahu had not died, nor been involved in a strike. The photos and videos were AI-generated. But when Netanyahu posted several videos of himself, debunking and mocking the rumour, some people on social media still refused to believe these were really him.
Today on the show, Thomas Copeland from BBC Verify explains how the economics of social media drive the creation of AI-generated fake videos – sometimes by people with no strong feelings about the war itself. And we speak to Peter Pomerantsev, author of Nothing Is True and Everything is Possible, who says the essential strategy behind wartime disinformation remains unchanged since ancient times.
Producers: Viv Jones, Valerio Esposito and Xandra Ellin Executive producer: James Shield Sound engineer: Travis Evans Senior news editor: China Collins
(Photo: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows his hand as he speaks at a cafe Credit: Benjamin Netanyahu/Reuters)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.9 | In the last week, the Israeli Prime Minister has posted multiple videos on social media, |
| 0:11.4 | reiterating that he is indeed alive. |
| 0:14.1 | But I have to tell you, I'm alive. |
| 0:17.8 | Just to be absolutely clear, he's definitely not dead. |
| 0:22.2 | But the reason Benjamin Netanyahu is sharing all these I'm Alive messages |
| 0:26.0 | is because there have been rumors circulating online, |
| 0:29.6 | in fact, you might have seen them on your feeds, that he was dead. |
| 0:34.8 | Photos depicting Netanyahu in the aftermath of an airstrike have been viewed millions of times. |
| 0:40.7 | The thing is, these photos were generated by AI. |
| 0:45.3 | And all of this got us wondering, are we now in the first AI slot war? |
| 0:51.5 | From the BBC, I'm Tristan Redmond in London. |
| 0:54.9 | And I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. |
| 0:57.8 | And today on The Global Story is the AI genie so far out of the bottle |
| 1:02.5 | that we can no longer trust our own eyes. |
| 1:18.8 | Now, to make sense of this wave of fake AI content we're seeing in this war, we have two guests on today's show. |
| 1:25.4 | Coming up later, we'll be hearing from Peter Pomeranzev, who's written extensively about propaganda and disinformation. |
| 1:28.2 | And he's also written a book which has the rather brilliant title of Nothing is True and Everything is Possible. With a lot of AI, I mean, it's really just |
| 1:34.1 | an augmentation of what we've seen in social media and what we've seen historically. |
| 1:38.4 | Before we had AI, people were doing that with rumors. That really is war propaganda 101. |
| 1:42.5 | But first, we're going to hear from one of our colleagues who's specifically been looking into the Netanyahu rumors. That really is war propaganda 101. But first we're going to hear from one of our colleagues |
| 1:44.5 | who's specifically been looking into the Netanyahu rumors. My name's Thomas Copeland and I work for |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.