Young entrepreneurs in Asia are profiting from hateful AI content on Facebook

A Guardian investigation has exposed a global operation spreading hateful content. Hundreds of Facebook accounts posing as British communities are actually run by young entrepreneurs in South Asia, who use AI to generate toxic content and monetize it. This isn't an ideological war. It's about money.

Who runs the accounts

Facebook accounts such as Britain Today, Britannia News and English Voice look like grassroots communities of concerned Britons. In reality, they are content factories. Behind them are young people in Sri Lanka and Pakistan who don't live in Britain and have no interest in its politics. Their goal is simple: figure out Facebook monetization and build a system that makes money. The language, the flag and the ideology are just tools.

What the content looks like

AI generates videos that look like real people speaking. A man complains that his café stopped serving bacon so as not to offend Muslims. Images of Victorian London carry the caption "when the city was English and beautiful." This is nostalgia that passes for harmless criticism of change.

But right next to it is open hatred. Memes calling Islam a cancer. Posts framing Muslims praying in the street as an invasion. Promotion of the Great Replacement theory. Together, these posts act like micro-toxins: each one looks like an opinion, but in aggregate they slowly poison the feed.

The money in hate

Facebook monetizes views: the more engagement, the more revenue. Young people in Asia found an arbitrage opportunity — create hateful content in English (a high-paying market) and publish it through a network of fake accounts. A single successful account pulls in 10 million views a month. That money flows back to South Asia, where it's enough to live on, hire operators and expand the factory.

• Content creation with AI (almost no cost)
• Publishing through a network of front accounts (looks organic)
• Monetization through Facebook (payouts in dollars)
• Cashing out in low-cost countries

Why it works

Facebook optimizes for engagement — for reaction, not truth. Hate provokes reactions: people click, comment and share out of anger. The algorithms amplify this content and push it up the feed.

The platform only blocks obvious violations (direct calls to violence). As long as an account looks organic, the content stays up.

What it means

The tools (AI for creation, platforms for distribution, payments for monetization) let anyone turn emotions into a commodity. The creators don't believe in the ideology. But the consequences are real: the content fuels phobias, divides societies and poisons public debate. Platforms choose neutrality over responsibility.

*Meta is designated an extremist organization and banned in Russia.