New Delhi, India – When Samreen Ayoub first saw the video, she was stunned.
The freelance model from India-administered Kashmir was scrolling on her phone last year when a friend sent her a clip circulating on Instagram.
A study by the Washington, DC-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) analysed 1,326 publicly available AI-generated images and videos collected from 297 public accounts on X, Facebook and Instagram from May 2023 to May 2025. The researchers found that sexualised depictions of Muslim women generated the highest engagement – more than 6.7 million interactions across the platforms.
“Generative AI has made the transformation of sexual fantasy into imagery possible at speed and at no cost,” said Zenith Khan, coauthor of the study and a digital research analyst at the CSOH. “Image generators and deepfakes allow individuals to convert hostile narratives into highly realistic visual material with minimal technical expertise.”
The data set compiled by the CSOH includes AI-generated memes portraying Muslim women in religious attire in sexually suggestive scenarios as well as fabricated pornographic imagery targeting journalists and activists. Across many of these images, researchers observed a recurring visual pattern: a “Muslim-coded woman” paired with a “Hindu-coded man”.