All Eyes on Rafah: The post shared by 47m people

What makes it more shareable still, however, is the AI-generated image in the post itself, experts say.

The image – depicting a vast desert and a tent camp with the text All Eyes on Rafah on it – does not show a real place or the city of Rafah.

Notably absent are pictures of dead bodies, blood, shots of real people, names or distressing scenes.

This has led to criticism from some quarters.

Dr Paul Reilly, a senior lecturer in Communications, Media and Democracy at the University of Glasgow, says that some activists will feel concerned that the image does not show the true extent of what’s really happening on the ground, pointing to material posted on social media by journalists in Gaza which has not gained such viral prominence.

Reacting to the criticism, the Malaysian who created the image wrote in an Instagram story quoted by Time magazine: “There are people who are not satisfied with the picture and template, I apologize if I have made a mistake on all of you.”

But he added: “Whatever [you do], don’t look down on the Rafah issue now, spread it so that they are shaken and afraid of the spread of all of us.”

But while the image depicts a somewhat “sanitised” version of what is going on in Rafah, Dr Reilly says that could be an advantage from a digital activist’s perspective in terms of its share-ability.

He explains that this is because the image does not contain graphic content that could lead to its removal from Instagram for infringing its terms of use guidelines, while also increasing awareness of the issue that activists seek to bring attention to.