Using AI In All Eyes On Rafah Upload Becomes Controversy, Hides The Life Experience Of Palestinians

JAKARTA The image with the words 'All Eyes on Rafah' made by AI has gone viral on social media. However, this post is also a concern, because the use of AI is considered not to describe the actual Rafah situation.

Netizens almost all over the world are busy uploading the image as a form of support for Palestinians who continue to be bombarded by Israeli soldiers.

Rafah itself is one of the densely populated cities in Palestine, located in the southernmost part of the Gaza region. With an area of 64 square km, the Rafah region was inhabited by around 275.000 people before the war took place. However, conditions in Rafah are now heartbreaking, after the Israeli archipelago launched an attack, which has left the area packed with refugees.

At least 45 Palestinians died and 200 people were injured following Israeli airstrikes on Sunday (26/5/2024). Israel claims the attack targeted the Hamas complex. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel totaled that it did not suspect that the attack would hit a civilian refugee camp. He said the attack was accidental.

Here’s a real image to use to call awareness for ALL EYES ON RAFAH and the ongoing genocide happening in Gaza and across Palestine pic.twitter.com/XZ0ZloFAGt

— 𝓵𝓫🍉 (@indiespicee) May 28, 2024

Here's a real image to use to call awareness for ALL EYES ON RAFAH and the onboard genocide happening in Gaza and across Palestine pic.twitter.com/XZ0ZloFAGt

Then on Tuesday (28/5) the Zionist forces returned to attack a refugee camp in the west of Rafah which resulted in the death of 21 Palestinians.

What angered the public, the series of attacks took place just days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to stop military operations in Rafah.

Citing Al Jazeera, Israel has killed at least 36,171 people in Gaza since the October 7 attack, according to the Minister of Health in Gaza.

All Eyes on Rafah is an image produced by artificial intelligence (AI) with a slogan calling for attention to the situation in Rafah, the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip near the border with Egypt.

literally, All Eyes on Rafah means All eyes are on Rafah. This expression is used to describe the situation when all attention and focus is on Rafah.

The phrase 'All Eyes on Rafah' also echoed all over the world. As of Thursday (30/5), more than 47 million Instagram users have shared images of All Eyes on Rafah through the Instagram story feature.

This upload is used by various groups, ranging from ordinary people, influencers, politicians, to domestic and foreign artists. A series of world celebrities who participated in distributing 'All Eyes on Rafah' uploads were Dua Lipa, Bella Hadid, Mark Ruffalo, and Ariana Grande.

The band from the United States, Paramore, also voiced support for Palestine through their Instagram story. The band, fronted by Hayley Williams, asked fans to donate for humanitarian assistance to Gazans through international humanitarian organizations such as Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders.

However, Paramore also emphasized that their support for Palestine does not mean they are anti-Jahudi.

"We do not believe that support for Palestinian friends and family is the same as anti-Semitism. We love our Jewish friends and family and pray that those who are still being held hostage will be released immediately," read Paramore's upload in the Instagram story feature.

"Nevertheless, we cannot support the idea of genocide. We support those calling for a ceasefire immediately and permanently," the band continued in a statement.

The use of AI in the upload 'All Eyes on Rafah' has become a polemic. On the one hand, this post is considered capable of reaching tens of millions of social media users to voice their concerns, but on the other hand, using images made by AI actually injures the hard work of journalists in Palestine. The image is also considered not really presenting what actually happened in Rafah.

The image with the words 'All Eyes on Rafah' has gone viral in the past few days, exceeding the spread of photos depicting the current situation in Rafah or Gaza.

According to a number of experts, there are several possible posts of All Eyes on Rafah quickly spread and do not get a shared shield like in other uploads.

The first reason this happened was because the image was shared using the 'Add Yours' feature on Instagram, which allows users to repost within seconds without having to search for other images.

Second, because the image is produced by AI, the image seems to have escaped any sensor based on the keyword, thus helping to massively spread it.

"The AI-generated template appears to have passed the detection of a text-based keyword or sensor," said Ammera Kawash, a high Palestinian-Irak-American artist and researcher in the UK.

It is also considered an easy way for celebrities and influencers to talk about a war they have never talked about before. But some experts have also revealed other reasons. The image of AI may also be more suitable for some viewers than the original Gazan photo, which clearly shows blood, corpse, and violence.

"I believe the virality of this picture is largely due to the contrast to the visual picture of the war that is commonly displayed," Eddy Borges -Rey, professor at Northwestern University in Qatar, quoted Al Jazeera.

Borges-Rey said the use of AI images created algorithms on platforms like Meta (Facebook and Instagram), which are designed to filter graphic violence, not detect these images.

Unlike actual war images, which may be limited or removed because of content policies, AI-generated images can spread more freely, thus contributing to their rapid virality, "added Borges-Rey.

Although most social media users are satisfied with the virality of the image, others are apparently worried about the image made by AI. Those who criticized the post thought that re-sharing the image actually caught the attention of the real picture and important gifts in Rafah.

Because in reality, Rafah is not at all as described in the viral upload, in the line of hundreds of refugee tents that look neat.

Instead of seeing a row of neat tents, those in Rafah today can only see the dark sky caused by smoke coming from Israeli bombs. Many tents caught fire after being bombed with their occupants still inside, as well as debris strewn between the tents.

Rafah is also now much denser than ever before, with about 1.5 million residents seeking protection from Israeli bombs in February.

The image underestimates the testimony and life experiences of Palestinians. This AI-generated image caused controversy as Palestinians for decades have asked the world to see and believe them. Kawash said.

With so many Palestinian journalists in Gaza knowing their lives to document the reality on the ground, images produced by AI can look like other forms of digital removal.

In fact, the viral picture of All Eyes on Rafah becomes a double-edged knife. On the one hand, AI can help spread the Palestinian narrative, by avoiding some censorship attempts, and on the one hand, such as being a barrier.

I will encourage AI-generated user and image consumers to consider how these AI-generated images are beaucing' and normalizing terrible violent scenes against Palestinians, Kawash ends.