Online Disinformation Intensifies Amid Israel-Hamas Conflict: Report

A video of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking about Ukraine last year was shared this month with fabricated subtitles cautioning the US against interference in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Smoke plumes billow during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City on October 12, 2023.

Source : Getty

As the Israel-Hamas conflict continues to rage, both regulators and analysts are sounding alarms over the proliferation of online disinformation, which threatens to exacerbate tensions and escalate the conflict in a digital fog of war, according to a report by Reuters. The most recent flashpoint in this surge of activity is an explosion at a Gaza hospital, resulting in the loss of hundreds of Palestinian lives. Supporters of both Israel and Hamas are actively working to reinforce their respective narratives while sowing doubt about the other side's account of events.

During a visit to Israel on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden acknowledged the challenge of verifying information amid the conflict. He suggested that the responsibility for the hospital incident appeared to rest with Israel's adversaries but also noted the prevalence of uncertainty.

Biden remarked, "But there's a lot of people out there not sure, so we've got a lot — we've got to overcome a lot of things."

The Reuters fact-checking unit has identified multiple instances of social media posts containing false images and information regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict. Some cases involve confusion rather than deliberate disinformation, contributing to heightened tensions. These cases include:

An account under the name Farida Khan claiming to be an Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza shared a message suggesting they had a video of a "Hamas missile landing in the hospital" during the recent incident. However, Al Jazeera clarified that the account had no affiliation with their news service, as there was no employee named Farida Khan. The account was subsequently removed.

A video of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking about Ukraine last year was shared this month with fabricated subtitles cautioning the US against interference in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Among genuine images depicting casualties from actions by Hamas on October 7, a 2015 video of the lynching of a 16-year-old girl in Guatemala has been misrepresented online as depicting a young Israeli woman being attacked by a "Palestinian mob."

Pop singer Pink faced online criticism regarding blue and white flags used in her act, to which she responded with a tweet explaining that she was not flying Israeli flags but rather using Poi flags, historically used by the Māori people in New Zealand.

The impact of heightened tensions is not limited to the conflict's immediate theatre. Beyond the Israeli towns and kibbutzes where 1,400 Israelis fell victim to Hamas gunmen on October 7 and Gaza, where over 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory bombardment, repercussions are felt worldwide.

France declared its highest security alert after an Islamist attack claimed the life of a teacher, and bomb alerts led to the evacuation of the Louvre museum. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin asserted a link between the attack and events in the Middle East.

In Illinois, a landlord was charged with hate crimes for allegedly stabbing a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy to death and injuring his mother, both of whom were his tenants. The sheriff's office stated that the suspect targeted them due to their Muslim identity and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.

Jewish schools in London closed over the weekend due to a Jewish charity recording a 400% increase in antisemitic incidents since the attacks compared to the same period the previous year.

In modern conflicts, including those beyond the Middle East, warring parties have historically used television and more recently the internet to secure not only victory on the battlefield but also in the realm of public opinion, often blending fact with fiction.

Regulators are now closely monitoring the situation. The EU's industry chief, Thierry Breton, has called out companies such as X, Facebook's parent company Meta, TikTok, and YouTube for what he perceives as inadequate efforts to combat disinformation following the recent events. Each of these companies has asserted that they have taken measures to address harmful content.

Since October 7, Israel's Office of the State Attorney Cyber Unit has been actively working to remove content on social networks that incites violence associated with Hamas. According to the Israeli prosecutor's office, around 4,450 requests have been submitted to remove content, with the majority directed at Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly known as Twitter).

Rafi Mendelsohn, a vice president of the Israeli bot-monitoring firm Cyabra, revealed that more than 40,000 fake accounts have been involved in promoting pro-Hamas narratives online. Significantly, thousands of these accounts were created over a year before the recent attack, suggesting a level of sophistication not typically associated with militant groups.

Some of these accounts also appear to be involved in disseminating falsehoods, often targeting Palestinians and Middle Eastern countries perceived as pro-Palestinian.

In a concerning development, a video from 2014 in which the spokesman for Hamas's military wing, Abu Obaidah, acknowledged Iranian support for Hamas has been recirculated online, misrepresented as recent, to directly implicate Tehran in the latest attack.

Furthermore, despite Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's criticism of Israel's blockade of Gaza, incorrect subtitles were added to a viral video shared on platforms like X and Facebook in recent days, warning the US not to intervene and suggesting that Turkey was "ready to defend Palestine at any price."

Marc Owen Jones, an expert in disinformation and a professor at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, pointed out that disinformation tends to rise during conflicts. He noted that Hamas appears to be sending mixed messages, combining videos of brutal attacks with attempts to portray themselves as humane. Similarly, anti-Palestinian narratives include claims that Palestinians are faking injuries and deaths using "crisis actors."

This growing web of disinformation is designed to sow confusion and undermine the credibility of information emerging from the conflict, making it increasingly challenging for the public to discern the truth.