The war of Israel and Hamas is in dire need of information

Social Media Has a Hard Time Finding Truth about the Israeli-Israel Conflict, Revealed After Hamas’ Attack on Gaza and its Causes

In the wake of Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel and the escalation into war over the weekend, social media platforms and messaging apps are awash in viral rumors, misleading images and videos, and outright falsehoods, making it hard for people in Israel, Gaza and around the world seeking information and facts about the conflict.

“For many reasons, this is the hardest time I’ve ever had covering a crisis on here,” Justin Peden, an OSINT researcher from Alabama known online as the Intel Crab, posted on X. “Credible links are now photos. On the ground news outlets struggle to reach audiences without an expensive blue check mark. Xenophobic goons are boosted by the platform’s CEO. End times, people.

It is getting difficult to find people in southern Israel who actually live in Palestine. It’s been hard to find their preliminary information and share their videos and photos. A large majority of users in that area are uneducated, so preliminary sources are not amplified, especially those that do not speak English.

The blue checkmark on the posts of people who pay $8 a month for a premium subscription was boosted by the idea that anyone with a blue checkMark could find the information they were looking for.

Identifying Russian Hacktivists Wreaking into Israel in the War Between Israel and the First World War II: Comments on X’s Misleading YouTube Accounts

Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, some prominent hacktivist groups backing Russian interests have emerged, including gangs known as “Anonymous Sudan” and “Killnet,” both of which appeared to wade into the conflict between Hamas and Israel this weekend. Some groups have been active against India’s support of Israel.

Will Thomas is a member of the cybersecurity team at internet infrastructure company Equinix and saw at least 60 websites get DDoS attacks. “Half of those are Israeli government sites. I’ve seen several sites defaced to show ‘Free Palestine’ messages.

Most prominently seen in the war between Russia and Ukraine, it is increasingly common for both ideologically motivated hackers and cybercriminals to remotely join the chaos on either side of an escalating conflict by attacking government systems or other institutions.

The groups that are identified so far are self-proclaimed hacktivists that claim to support Palestine. These groups have historically targeted India and have been around for years” Leslie says. Pro-Russian hacktivists are trying to target Israel in order to sow chaos and spread Russian state narratives. They are new groups and have limited activities prior to this weekend.

Accounts can buy the illusion of legitimacy and credibility, and have a direct profit incentive to maximize views of their posts, if they don’t have any new information to share.

“I’ve noticed that some of these accounts, then they editorialize more frequently, they interject their own opinions, or they may suggest things that are not necessarily based in even the data that they’re sharing” he said. The consequences are deeply harmful in a situation where people are making real and meaningful decisions based on what they see on the platform.

Both accounts carry “verified” checkmarks, meaning they’ve paid for X’s subscription service. That means their posts get boosted on the platform and they are eligible to earn advertising money.

Musk has also added to the confusion on his platform, recommending that “for following the war in real-time,” users follow two accounts that have posted spurious claims in the past — including promoting a false report of an explosion at the Pentagon in May that sparked a brief dip in the stock market.

But many users quickly pointed out the video was originally posted on TikTok in August and bears no indication that it depicts a kidnapped child and a terrorist. The X post has been labeled with a user-generated fact check pointing this out, but has been viewed a million times and remains on the platform despite replies urging the poster to delete or correct it.

A man plays with a baby in a video posted by the co-chair of a group that calls itself Republicans Overseas Israel. The caption says it shows a terrorist and a baby girl in Gaza.

How War is Using Social Media to Spread Propaganda, Prevented Crime, and Sow War Crimes in the U.S

X has emerged as a particular place for false claims and misrepresentation because Musk has removed many protections against the spread of false and misleading narratives.

False and misleading claims are also being used to advance political agendas here in the U.S. On X, the site formerly known as Twitter, a fake memo purporting to show the White House announcing $8 billion in military aid to Israel spread on Facebook, showed up high in Google search results, and was boosted on X by accounts that paid $8 for “verified” checkmarks. The White House says the Biden administration didn’t funnel $6 billion to Hamas through Iran as alleged by the fake memo.

“All of these actors of course will be squarely focused on the war and how they can twist perception of the war to benefit their objectives,” said Emerson Brooking, resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

State actors, including those supported by Iran and Russia, are taking advantage of the chaos to spread propaganda and sow confusion, despite the fact that there is only so much fake information online.

“The violent content that is being pushed out across a range of different social media platforms as well as as well as encrypted messaging apps is being used to essentially to gloat, celebrate attacks, as well as … to insinuate war crimes,” said Moustafa Ayad, executive director for Africa, the Middle East and Asia at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonprofit that studies extremism.

This is propaganda 101. You flood the gap, especially in those early hours, with content that suggests a certain narrative, whether it’s the strength of one faction over another, whether it’s the strength of one state over another, and try to get ahead of the curve,” he said.

There was not much information when we saw the events happening. No one knew anything. And [into] this vacuum of information entered all kinds of interest groups, fear, confusion and conspiracies,” said Achiya Schatz, executive director of FakeReporter, an Israeli watchdog group that tracks misinformation.

Many online videos are taken out of context or mis-characterized, a frequent occurrence in breaking news situations where interest is high but verified information is hard to come by.

The Musk-Mumford Statement on Social Media: “Coming to the Cross-Corporate and Standing up for the Human-Machine Collective”

The statement, issued three days after the conflict began, reads: “As the events continue to unfold rapidly, a cross-company leadership group has assessed this moment as a crisis requiring the highest level of response.”

Musk promoted a new feature on the platform that will allow subscribers to see replies from other people if they pay $8 a month, an issue Musk previously claimed he had taken care of.

“​​If successful, X will evolve to be the collective consciousness of humanity or, more accurately, the human-machine collective,” Musk posted in reply to a follower who said he was doing a great job running the company.

The Safety team said in its statement that new accounts were being created to address the flood of misinformation on the platform. The Safety team also revealed that it had removed “several hundreds accounts for attempting to manipulate trending topics.”