Disinformation abounds about Israel-Hamas war

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/10/2023 (714 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Since Palestinian terror group Hamas carried out its murderous rampage against Israel on Oct. 7, killing at least 1,400 people, the platform X (formerly Twitter) has been awash in falsehoods about the conflict. Over 50 million posts mentioned it in the first 48 hours alone, featuring numerous digital hoaxes on both sides.

Interwoven on users’ feeds among real headcam footage of Hamas fighters broadcasting savagery reminiscent of the Islamic State were pro-Israel posts containing scenes repurposed from video games or the Syrian civil war.

Another gruesome video showed a woman being lit on fire. The accompanying text claimed it happened during Hamas’s massacre of music festival attendees — a verified atrocity. But the visuals were ripped from CNN’s coverage of mob violence in Guatemala in 2015.

Meanwhile, a user impersonating a BBC journalist tried to pass off a photo of a Moroccan footballer at last year’s World Cup, holding a Palestinian flag, as global soccer icon Ronaldo. A copycat profile posing as the Jerusalem Post newspaper sparked a rumour that Israel’s President Benjamin Netanyahu was rushed to hospital.

These accounts and countless others like them garnered massive engagement before X’s volunteer fact-checking community could flag them as false. The platform’s owner, Elon Musk, responded by promoting to his 150 million followers two obscure accounts as trusted sources of information.

Both accounts were swiftly denounced by experts as known sources of bogus material. Musk later deleted his tweet, but only after it was viewed 11 million times. One conspiracy theory specialist told Bloomberg that Hamas’s attack on Israel represented “the first real test of Elon Musk’s version of Twitter, and it failed spectacularly.”

“It’s now almost impossible to tell what’s a fact, what’s a rumor, what’s a conspiracy theory, and what’s trolling,” said Mike Rothschild, who has previously provided written testimony to the U.S. Congress detailing how disinformation is eroding American democracy. “Musk’s changes haven’t just made X useless during a time of crisis. They’ve made it actively worse.”

Immediately after his US$44-billion purchase of X (then Twitter) in October 2022, Musk — a self-described “free-speech absolutist” — dismantled the platform’s content moderation and editorial oversight teams. The tech magnate then created an option to pay for verification status, something previously reserved for high-profile accounts and media outlets to authenticate their credibility.

These changes were reinforced by tweaking X’s content algorithm in favour of paid-for accounts, alongside an ad-revenue sharing model that financially benefits users that generate significant engagement. Predictably, this has incentivized bad actors to purchase verification status and spread fake material to provoke emotional responses like disgust and outrage that turbocharge user activity.

A tech reporter with the Thomson Reuters Foundation has described the consequence for the Israel-Hamas conflict as an “algorithmically driven fog of war.”

This phenomenon was underscored by the deadly blast at Gaza’s al-Ahli Arab Hospital on Oct. 17. Authorities there reported it was hit by an Israeli airstrike, killing upwards of 500 civilians seeking shelter within. Israeli officials deny this, saying it stemmed from a faulty rocket launched by Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, while arguing the death toll has been exaggerated for effect.

Even if independent experts can assemble definitive proof of who is to blame for the tragedy, it likely won’t convince supporters on either side of the war. Partisans can easily turn to any number of malleable theories circulating online that confirm their beliefs.

Such a pattern could play out on repeat in the months ahead as Israel’s military begins a complex and brutal ground invasion of Gaza. Annihilating Hamas within the 25 square-mile enclave of 2.3 million people will be impossible without sacrificing many innocent lives.

Hamas neither represents, nor is it embraced by the majority of Palestinians. And yet it retains a degree of support in what is the most densely populated area on Earth and has shown no qualms about using Gaza’s residents as human shields. The Islamist group also holds an advantage in door-to-door, urban guerilla warfare thanks to having built an underground labyrinth of tunnels allowing fighters to move undetected between hotspots and weapons caches ruthlessly stored in hospitals, schools and mosques.

Israel is within its legal and moral rights to seek retribution for the worst national trauma in its history. But Palestinian civilian losses and Israeli military mistakes will inevitably mount, as will violations of international law.

Ultimately, the harrowing images that emerge from the assault on Gaza will provide cover for more false digital propaganda campaigns — on X and elsewhere — further complicating efforts to bring peace to a troubled region.

Kyle Hiebert is a Winnipeg-based researcher and analyst, and former deputy editor of the Africa Conflict Monitor.