Content warning: This piece features graphic war footage.

Meta has allowed — and apparently profited from — multiple ads pushing versions of the debunked conspiracy theory that Palestinians injured during the ongoing war in Gaza have been somehow faking their injuries or are “crisis actors.” These ads have run on Meta’s platforms, even though Meta’s misinformation policy “prohibits ads that include content debunked by third-party fact checkers.”

Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and Israel subsequently launched a military offensive in Gaza — which by the Israeli military’s own account has killed two civilians for every Hamas militant — some have tried to suggest that images and videos showing civilian casualties and injuries in Gaza have been faked, claiming that the people in the images and videos were instead “crisis actors.” Conspiracy theorists in right-wing media have previously applied this term to school shooting victims and survivors. Multiple outlets — including several of Meta’s third-party fact-checking partners — have debunked the conspiracy theory, which has been referred to as “Pallywood.”

Even though Meta prohibits ads with misinformation fact-checked by its partners, Media Matters has identified multiple ads that started in at least mid-November and have pushed the Pallywood conspiracy theory. As of publication, some of these ads no longer appear in Meta’s Ad Library, with an error message explaining that “this can happen when an ad expires or is deleted, or when it’s incorrectly categorized as an ad about social issues, elections or politics.”

One ad, which started running on Instagram on November 16, claimed to show “behind the scenes” footage from “Pallywood Productions,” and featured a video suggesting that footage of a child injured in Gaza was faked and referenced a supposed “wound factory” in the territory. USA Today and PolitiFact have noted parts of the video are actually “behind-the-scenes footage from a short film shot in Lebanon” and footage from a March 2017 TRT World report that “featured special effects makeup artist Mariam Salah on a film set in the Gaza Strip.”

Another ad that also started running on Instagram that same day featured video of Palestinian social media influencer Saleh Aljafarawi, included the hashtag “#Pallywood,” and had text in Portuguese that claims — when translated to English via Google — that Aljafarawi is a “main actor” in Gaza who “dies 7 times” and keeps reappearing. The video in the ad ended with the theme song from the comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm playing along with the word “Pallywood.” Multiple outlets have deemed that claims of Aljafarawi being a “crisis actor” are false.

And another ad, which started running on November 30 on Meta’s platforms, also featured the Pallywood hashtag and a video dubiously claiming that a Palestinian boy imprisoned and then released by Israel as part of its temporary ceasefire deal with Hamas had faked his injuries.

Besides those ads, another ad also ran briefly on Meta’s platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Meta Audience Network) on December 2 with a video that included a man claiming that there were “fake drama crisis actors” in Gaza and a baseless Newsmax segment pushing the conspiracy theory and mocking Aljafarawi, who the host says is “everywhere. He’s a crisis actor. He’s at every possible crisis they have. He gets paid by Hamas.” The ad was paid for in Norwegian currency, and was seemingly taken down. It is now listed in Meta’s Ad Library with a note that the ad ran “without a required disclaimer,” meaning, “This ad about social issues, elections or politics didn’t include a verified ‘Paid for by’ disclaimer, so it was removed.”

Given that Meta’s fact-checking partners have debunked the Pallywood conspiracy theory, the ads appear to violate Meta’s policies — meaning Meta may have earned money from ads that violate its own rules.

Meta’s apparent inability to enforce its advertising rules when it comes to the Pallywood conspiracy theory is nothing new — the company previously allowed ads falsely claiming that Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel was a false flag, another conspiracy theory which has been debunked by Meta’s third-party fact checkers. These ads are the latest example in Meta’s long history of repeatedly struggling to enforce its advertising policies, and they should be a cautionary tale for when Meta rolls out advertising on its latest platform, Threads.