The rise of the Emirati dis-influencers and why we all should be worried Submitted by Marc Owen Jones on Mon, 12/29/2025 - 06:32 Open-source investigation has revealed UAE's sophisticated pseudo-media ecosystem, where right-wing and Israeli-aligned commentators masquerade as moderate Arab voices Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, greets Elon Musk on 20 December, 2025 (AFP) On You may have noticed them online: young, Emirati commentators pontificating in slick videos warning about the dangers of the Muslim Brotherhood , appearing at reputable institutions like Georgetown and Cambridge University, and publishing op-eds on Sudan , migration and Islamism. They present themselves as independent public intellectuals and moderate Arab voices concerned with western security and regional stability. But something doesn’t quite add up. Why do these supposedly independent figures so often appear together? Why do they film themselves in what looks like the same studio, complete with identical props? Why were many of their social media accounts, and a cluster of "independent" "news" websites, created at the same time? And why do their talking points so consistently align with the foreign policy positions of the United Arab Emirates, Israel , and segments of the European far right ? After months of open-source investigation , a clearer picture emerges. What looks like a spontaneous cohort of  influencers is better understood as a tightly interlinked media ecosystem - one that blends dis-influencers, pseudo-news outlets, AI-assisted publishing, and institutional platforms to manufacture credibility and launder political narratives into western discourse. At the centre of this ecosystem sit some commentators with a documented history of circulating disinformation and spreading UAE-aligned propaganda. Dis-influencers are, simply, those with reach who repeatedly spread disinformation or propaganda. A coordinated emergence Until late 2024, most of these figures were virtually unknown. Then, almost overnight, they appeared everywhere. At least seven X (formerly Twitter) accounts associated with the dis-influencers network were created in December 2024 alone. Around the same time, five news-like websites, The Washington Eye, Daily Euro Times, Brieflex, AfricaLix, and InfoFlix, were registered within weeks of each other in October and November 2024. Money, mercenaries and mayhem: How Israel and UAE are investing in regional chaos Read More » Earlier sites such as EuroPost Agency and New York Insight, launched in 2023, also link back to the same ecosystem. Once you start looking, the coordination becomes hard to ignore. Members of the network frequently record videos in the same studio, with identical set dressing, including a distinctive black-and-silver globe. They publish in the same outlets, amplify each other’s content, and attend the same events. Throughout 2025, they travelled together to conferences and speaking engagements across three continents, including the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, the University of Cambridge, UC San Diego, and the right-wing Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London - to name but a few. These appearances seemed to be an attempt to spread specific talking points into key political centres. Across platforms and contexts, one theme dominates: the Muslim Brotherhood. When I analysed their social media output, "Muslim Brotherhood" emerged as the most frequent and habitual collocate, by far. The Brotherhood functions as a master explanatory frame through which everything else is interpreted. Environmental degradation? The Muslim Brotherhood. Sudan’s civil war? The Muslim Brotherhood. Terrorist attacks in Sydney ? Once again, the Muslim Brotherhood. Their trips abroad seem to be about delivering pro-UAE, pro-Israel and European right-wing talking points. One such commentator specialises in environmental issues. Yet in a video recorded at Cambridge University under Pinsker Centre auspices, she frames ecological damage as the fault of the Muslim Brotherhood. At Georgetown University, another member of the network echoed Israeli narratives claiming Hamas diverts humanitarian assistance. The campaign even includes blatant disinformation. Narrative laundering Running alongside the influencers is a network of pseudo-news outlets, sites that mimic journalism without operating as genuine news organisations, often designed to strategically drop propaganda or disinformation. In addition to publishing articles by the dis-influencers, who all promote the sites, these outlets publish large volumes of low-quality, often AI-assisted content written by freelance writers, punctuated by strategic "exclusives" designed to travel on social media. What remains opaque is who funds the travel, production and amplification, and how editorial and promotional decisions are coordinated One example illustrates the model clearly. In May 2025, The Washington Eye published an "exclusive" claiming that Libya ’s prime minister had transferred $400 million to Turkey , implicating the Muslim Brotherhood. The authors appear to be fictional journalists . Libyan media denied the claim, and the article was quietly removed from the website. But it remained live on X, where it continued to circulate. This is narrative laundering in practice: dubious claims gain durability and legitimacy simply by passing through a news-like container. Similarly, another commentator published an article on a little known site called New York Insight, which once again is a pseudo news site promoted by other dis-influencers. New York Insight is also linked to another site that has promoted pro-Israel disinformation smearing Al Jazeera journalists. The article lambasted the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan, the account’s social media, a collection of right-wing talking points. The factory book Then there are the books. Between July and September 2025, at least eight members of the network published books, through the same publisher and within a three-month window. The texts show clear signs of AI generation: formulaic structures, excessive em dashes, comparative constructions, and the near-total absence of bibliographies or original sourcing. Why the UAE is stoking European Islamophobia Read More » The books function as credibility props. Search engines and AI systems register these figures as "published authors", reinforcing their authority. If you ask an AI about these influencers' books, it will not tell you that the text, again a diatribe on political Islam, appears to have been generated in an afternoon by a large language model. Taken together, what emerges is an Emirati-aligned influence ecosystem that presents itself as a collection of independent, reform-minded voices while advancing a remarkably consistent set of narratives: obsessive hostility to the Muslim Brotherhood, securitised portrayals of Islam and migration in Europe, uncritical alignment with Israeli security framing, and the depiction of the UAE as a model state. That alignment is sustained not by narrative alone but by infrastructure, pseudo-news sites created in tandem with influencer accounts, paid amplification through Crestnux Media, an "advertising" company created by a dis-influencer, repeated co-appearance at western policy venues, and links to some figures who sit at the centre of this network. What remains opaque is who funds the travel, production and amplification, and how editorial and promotional decisions are coordinated. What is not opaque is the effect: a coordinated set of Emirati dis-influencers whose authority is laundered through western institutions and then recycled back into the information ecosystem as proof of credibility. Until those institutions begin asking basic questions about how such "independent" voices are produced, similar operations will continue to pass as grassroots commentary rather than what is a mini propaganda media ecosystem. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye. Media Opinion Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:29 Update Date Override 0