The Lebanese-American media personality is escalating her rhetoric, blasting American and Israeli military actions as terrorism despite losing major brand deals for past comments.
April 9 — Mia Khalifa has a camera, a massive digital footprint, and a message she refuses to soften. In a newly uploaded video broadcast to her millions of followers, the Lebanese-American media personality pointed the word “terrorist” squarely at the governments of the United States and Israel.
She isn’t mincing words. In the clip, Khalifa directly equates American foreign policy and Israeli military operations with state-sponsored terrorism. It’s a sharp escalation from a digital creator who has spent the last two years transforming her platforms into a megaphone for anti-Israel and anti-American sentiment.
The video lands in a deeply polarized online ecosystem. Khalifa, who was born in Lebanon and relocated to the United States in 2001, has consistently leveraged her celebrity to condemn Western intervention in the Middle East. She doesn’t hedge her statements. In her view, the destruction in Gaza and Lebanon isn’t defense. She calls it terrorism, driven by Israeli forces and bankrolled by Washington.
And she knows exactly what this rhetoric costs.
In October 2023, just days after the Hamas attacks on Israel, Khalifa sparked global outrage when she took to social media to call the militants “freedom fighters.” She famously mocked the attackers’ camera work, urging them to “flip their phones and film horizontally.” The corporate fallout was swift and brutal. Playboy immediately terminated her creator contract, stating they tolerate free expression but draw the line at hate speech. Red Light Holland, a Canadian wellness company, fired her as an advisor. Even an Iranian hardline political faction publicly praised her stance, a bizarre endorsement that highlighted how far her comments had traveled.
She didn’t apologize then. She isn’t apologizing now.
Since the 2023 cancellations, Khalifa’s online persona has hardened. She frequently appears on alternative media platforms, including an extended interview on the Empire Files podcast, where she discussed growing up under Israeli occupation and accused Israel of perpetuating anti-Arab racism. Her latest video simply strips away the academic language. Calling the US and Israel “terrorists” is a blunt-force tactic designed to shock the algorithm and rally her base.
Critics point out the irony. Khalifa built a highly lucrative, albeit controversial, career in the United States—a country she now openly vilifies. Supporters argue she’s using her immense privilege and un-cancellable status to force eyes onto a humanitarian crisis that corporate media often sanitizes.
Social media platforms are now struggling to moderate this kind of high-profile political warfare. Major networks like X and TikTok profit from the engagement her videos generate, but they also face mounting pressure from advertisers and watchdog groups to deplatform accounts that push hostile rhetoric against entire nations. So far, her accounts remain active.
Khalifa has made her position clear. She isn’t looking for brand deals anymore. She’s looking for a fight, and she’s using the very platforms American tech built to wage it.
