The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X (Twitter) in Disinformation

[Nevilledog]

https://www.wired.com/story/x-israel-hamas-war-disinformation/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/2uWuq

IN THE WAKE of Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel this weekend—and the Israeli military’s response—journalists, researchers, open source intelligence (OSINT) experts, and fact-checkers rushed to verify the deluge of raw video footage and images being shared online by people on the ground. But users of X (formerly Twitter) seeking information on the conflict faced a flood of disinformation.

While all major world events are now accompanied almost instantly by a deluge of disinformation aimed at controlling the narrative, the scale and speed at which disinformation was being seeded about the Israel-Hamas conflict is unprecedented—particularly on X.

“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, folks.”

When Peden covered the escalation in Gaza in 2021, the sources he was seeing in his feed were from people on the ground or credible news agencies. This weekend, he says, verified content or primary sources were virtually impossible to find on X.

*snip*

[roamer65]

1. Twitter is garbage.

[Tomconroy]

2. You do have to be very careful, particularly about the videos.

Trust your known source.

[hlthe2b]

3. Kind of makes you appreciate the MSM--however flawed.

BBC gives a good perspective...

[Behind the Aegis]

4. Why should it be different than any other website?

The only real difference that I can tell, is a few places will actually take action; most will not.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. There are big differences between websites

Twitter under Musk has gotten rid of most of their misinformation policing, along with policing around racism and homophobia. They've even seen a massive increase in child porn as they don't seem to care what gets posted there anymore. Of course, they're banning liberals and critics of Musk's at a much increased rate.