The speed with which the image spread says something about Gaza’s desperate situation, but also about today’s media ecology. Symbolic, AI‑generated images of conflict, like this viral one, can slip past social media moderation designed to block violent content.

Meta, the US technology group that owns Instagram, has recently tightened its rules on political content, loosely defining it as anything concerning ‘laws, elections and social topics’. Users now have to opt in if they wish to see such posts; political material is throttled by default.

Moderation is intended to protect users and keep advertisers happy. Underwear, real estate, pet toys and cosmetics are more difficult to sell alongside images of war.

Because so many people now rely on social platforms for news, these restrictions often shield users from the true horrors of conflict. In the AI picture, neat ranks of tents stretch to the horizon beneath a flawless blue sky, mountains hazy in the distance. Footage from Sunday’s devastating air strike on Rafah presents a different reality: charred corpses, a man carrying a decapitated child, flames tearing through canvas.

Four years ago, social‑media users—again, rightly—protested against racism and police brutality by posting black squares. Critics argued that the gesture drowned out vital discussion within the Black Lives Matter movement. Yesterday I saw fewer authentic images from Gaza on Instagram than in previous days, despite the picture’s aim of focusing all eyes on Rafah.

We can still look, thanks to the journalists risking their lives on the ground. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 107 reporters and media workers have been killed in the Gaza war—more than in any other conflict since the CPJ began keeping records in 1992. Of those killed, 102 were Palestinian. By following journalists such as Hind Khoudary of Al Jazeera, we can witness the real cost of war.

Symbols matter. During the Vietnam war the photograph of Phan Thi Kim Phúc, a young girl running naked and screaming after a napalm attack, crystallised public revulsion and helped turn opinion against the fighting. We do not yet know which image will come to symbolise the Gaza war, but it will not be one generated by AI. There are already too many photographs, each capturing the conflict’s brutal reality.