Searching for Jobs, Gen Z Feels Like It's Staring into 'The Void'
Gen Z job seekers are struggling to find work in a difficult job market. The search can feel isolating and uncertain, like staring into a void. (nytimes.com)
Manufacturing the Great Replacement
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A three-year investigation by Marc Owen Jones and Sohan D’Souza describes a covert advertising operation spreading anti-Muslim, anti-migrant and anti-Qatar messages across Europe, Lebanon and the United States. It reportedly ran from October 2023 to October 2026 in three phases, using 72 named campaigns and 64 Facebook page identities, with activity later expanding to YouTube and TikTok. The investigators count 533 million recorded exposures across 30 countries. Meta disclosed that $1.2 million had been spent on the operation; the researchers report 94.7 million in reach from Facebook ads, 132 million views for YouTube videos and 72.2 million in TikTok ad reach.
In Europe, the content framed migration through the “Great Replacement” conspiracy, casting Qatar as a secret force behind Muslim immigration. It combined AI-generated material with edited real footage and was timed to coincide with elections in several countries. The operation also targeted Shia audiences in Lebanon with anti-Hezbollah and anti-Iran messaging, promoted regime change in Iran, and extended offline through billboards, a staged protest, a CPAC video, a petition and coordinated Wikipedia edits. Investigators trace links to advertising intermediaries in several countries and say video metadata and an Israeli IP address point toward operators in Israel, including possible connections to Israeli influence firms. They stress that the campaign’s backers remain unidentified and that a named designer’s identity and involvement are not confirmed.
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