Disinformation in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war

Disinformation has been wide-ranging, with the dissemination of false, misleading or unsubstantiated information on both sides in the conflict. Much of the content has been viral in nature, with tens of millions of posts in circulation on social media. Some misinformation has also been widely distributed in mainstream media and repeated by heads of state.

Claims of actors

A reporter for BBC compared how two four year old's, one Palestinian and one Israeli, killed due to the conflict and have been systematically denied across social media. On a video showing the Palestinian child's corpse wrapped in a blanket claims that the body is a doll and that it is a part of Hamas and Palestinian propaganda. The video received over 3.8 million views and was also published by the State of Israel's official X account, along with their international embassies. In response to a family photo of the Israeli child who was killed with his parents and older siblings at their kibbutz many have claimed that there was no evidence of their deaths and they were paid actors. Others claimed that the reported deaths which have been reported across media sites were Jewish propaganda.[1]

Disinformation about the attacks

On Israel

A photograph was released appearing to show Major General Nimrod Aloni, the commander of the IDF Depth Corps, being held by Palestinians in the early hours of the attack. Hamas also claimed to have captured him.[2] A Persian language post by the IDF quoted a post about his capture from Tasnim News Agency and wrote "Tasnim: Distributors of fake news of IRGC" without either denying or confirming the capture of Aloni.[3][4] Aloni was subsequently seen on 8 October attending a meeting of top Israeli military officials.[5]

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting published images of the capture of commanders of Nagorno-Karabakh by the Azerbaijani army in September 2023 as the capture of Israeli commanders by Hamas.[6][7][8]

A video of a CNN broadcast from near the Israel-Gaza border[9] with audio added to suggest the network had faked an attack went viral on social media.[10][11]

Social media accounts based in India have spread pro-Israeli disinformation, with influencers misrepresenting videos purported to show school girls taken as sex slaves, or Hamas kidnapping a Jewish baby. Fact-checker Pratik Sinha said the "Indian right-wing has made India the disinformation capital of the world".[12] The trend forms part of a wider pattern of fake news in India with an Islamophobic slant, including disinformation on Palestinians coming from the BJP IT Cell, a vehicle of India's governing party, the BJP.[12]

On Gaza

Viral claims that the IDF had destroyed Gaza's Church of Saint Porphyrius on 9 October were debunked by the church.[13][14] However, the church would be damaged by an Israeli airstrike on 19 October.[15]

Disinformation experts uncovered an account on X that published false reports about Qatar threatening to cut off its gas exports if Israel continued to bombard the Gaza Strip.[16]

Following the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion, an X account claiming to be an Al Jazeera journalist said they had video of a "Hamas missile landing in the hospital". Al Jazeera subsequently clarified that they were not associated with the account, and it was later removed.[17] Another X account that promoted pro-Kremlin misinformation claimed The Wall Street Journal had reported that the explosion was caused by a Mark 84 bomb; The Wall Street Journal had not published such a report.[18][19]

Disinformation campaigns

After the outbreak of the war, an Israeli disinformation campaign began propagating the "Hamas is ISIS" war-propaganda slogan. American military analyst Andrew Exum has denounced such depictions as "misguided".[20] A fake memo that purported to show Biden authorizing $8 billion in aid to Israel circulated on social media[21][22] and was cited in articles by Indian news outlets Firstpost and Oneindia.[22]

Fake videos

Videos falsely linked to the war included a video of children in cages posted on 4 October,[23][24] footage from 2020 of Iranian lawmakers chanting "Death to America",[25][26] and in Egypt, photos of the Cairo Tower appearing to be lit with the Palestinian flag spread on social media, which turned out to be a modified version of the tower in 2010.[27] Footage from video game Arma 3 has been presented as war footage.[28][29][30] [31]

On October 8, a video supposedly of Hamas thanking Ukraine for supplying them was shared by an X account linked to the Wagner Group. It was viewed over 300,000 times and shared by American far-right accounts. The next day, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev tweeted, "Well, Nato buddies, you've really got it, haven't you? The weapons handed to the Nazi regime in Ukraine are now being actively used against Israel."[32][33][34]

Social media users on both sides of the war shared behind-the-scenes footage of an actor lying in fake blood from a 2022 Palestinian short film, alleging it was evidence that the other side was creating propaganda.[35][36][32] A video of Egyptian paratroopers flying over the Egyptian Military Academy that was falsely claimed to show Hamas militants infiltrating an Israeli music festival went viral on X in Indonesia.[37]

Indian Twitter accounts spread an out of context video claimed to represent "dozens of young girls taken as sex slaves by a 'Palestinian' fighter", which was instead actually probably a school trip to Jerusalem. Another clip primarily shared by Indian users was purported to depict a kidnapped baby; however, the video was taken a month earlier and had nothing to do with Gaza.[12]

Role of social media platforms
See also: Media coverage of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war

Disinformation about the war has spread on social media platforms, particularly X (formerly known as Twitter).[38][39][40][41][42] The European Union warned Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg that X and Meta were hosting disinformation and illegal content about the war, with potential fines of up to 6% of the companies' global revenue according to the Digital Services Act.[43][44][45][46]

In response to the reports, X's CEO Linda Yaccarino told EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton that it had "taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content" and removed hundreds of accounts linked to Hamas.[47]

According to NewsGuard, "at least 14 false claims related to the war garnered 22 million views across X, TikTok, and Instagram within three days of the Hamas attack".[48] On 13 October, the EU opened an investigation into X about the spread of disinformation and terrorist content related to the war.[49][50]

On 14 October, Center for Countering Digital Hate CEO Imran Ahmed said his group was tracking a spike in efforts to push false information about the war, adding that U.S. adversaries, extremists, Internet trolls and engagement farmers were exploiting the war for their own gain. Graham Brookie, senior director of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, said that his team had witnessed a surge in terrorist propaganda, graphic content, false or misleading claims and hate speech, with much of the content being circulated on Telegram.[51] Cyabra, an Israel-based company that analyses social media, said that one in five accounts taking part in conversations about Hamas' attacks were fake, saying adding that they had found approximately 40,000 such accounts on X and TikTok.[52]

X (formerly Twitter)

On 9 October, X said there were more than 50 million posts on the platform about the conflict.[53] Musk recommended two accounts that previously promoted a false claim about an explosion near the Pentagon for updates about the war.[54][39]

On 10 October, researchers found that a network of 67 X accounts was coordinating a campaign of pushing false information about the war.[55]

According to Wired, the community fact-checking system of X, Community Notes, has in some instances contributed to the spread of disinformation instead of correcting it. Wired cited an incident where a video uploaded by Donald Trump Jr. of Hamas shooting at Israelis was inaccurately tagged as a false video from several years ago as an example of the unreliability of Community Notes.[56] Fake accounts pretending to be a BBC journalist and The Jerusalem Post promoted false information about the war prior to X suspending them.[57][42]

On 12 October, the Technology Transparency Project reported that Hamas was using premium accounts on X to push propaganda.[58][59] X said it has banned Hamas and removed hundreds of accounts affiliated with Hamas.[60]

On 13 October, on The World radio program, Rebecca Rosman reported that disinformation on X was being monetized by paid-verified users with "new-content" recommendation preference, resulting in millions of views.[61]

According to a report by NewsGuard on 19 October, verified users on X were behind 74% of the 250 most-engaged posts between 7 and 14 October that promoted false or unsubstantiated information about the war. NewsGuard also found that only 79 of the 250 posts were flagged by Community Notes.[62][63][64]

TikTok

On 12 October, the EU warned TikTok about illegal content and disinformation on its platform.[65][66] On 15 October, TikTok said it had taken action to remove "violative content and accounts".[67] It also said it had established a command center for the conflict, updated its automated detection systems to detect violent content and added moderators who speak Arabic and Hebrew.[67][68][69] A TikTok video promoting conspiracy theories about the origins of Hamas's attack was viewed over 300,000 times.[69]

In mid-October, the Communications and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil confirmed that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) would meet with TikTok's parent company ByteDance following complaints from Malaysian TikTok users that content containing words like Hamas were removed by the social media company.[70][71]

Telegram

The Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, had around 200,000 followers on Telegram at the time of Hamas's attack. According to the Digital Forensic Research Lab, its following has tripled since then, with its posts being viewed over 300,000 times.[60][72] The Digital Forensic Research Lab found that Hamas relies on Telegram to send statements to its supporters.[72]

According to political analyst and researcher Arieh Kovler, many Israelis follow official-sounding Telegram channels that share out-of-context videos and unverified rumors.[72]

In a statement, Telegram said it was "evaluating the best approaches and... soliciting input from a wide range of third parties" and that it wished to be "careful not to exacerbate the already dire situation by any rush actions".[72]

See also

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