Israel-Hamas War: Elon Musk’s X accused of spreading fake news, CEO Linda Yaccarino responds

Hamas conducted a surprise attack on Israel past weekend. Soon after the attack, several fake videos and images started surfacing on X, previously known as Twitter. Elon Musk-owned social media platform flagged a lot of posts spreading misinformation. However, it failed to take down some, reported CNBC.

As per the report, a video of Israeli airstrikes against Hamas was circulating on X which was false and misleading. This video was widely shared by several users but was not flagged by the social media platform. The report also points out that “dozens of posts with the same video and caption were not flagged by X’s system”.

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino revealed that the company has removed newly created Hamas-affiliated accounts to stop the spread of misinformation. Twitter Safety account on X posted, "Our escalation teams have actioned tens of thousands of posts for sharing graphic media, violent speech, and hateful conduct."

In the past couple of days, we’ve seen an increase in daily active users on @X in the conflict area, plus there have been more than 50 million posts globally focusing on the weekend’s terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas.

As the events continue to unfold rapidly, a cross-company…

— Safety (@Safety) October 10, 2023

Recently, Musk had advised users to follow an account that was known for peddling misinformation. This account had earlier spread fake news of an explosion at the Pentagon.

Musk wrote, “For following the war in real-time, @WarMonitors and @sentdefender are good. It is also worth following direct sources on the ground. Please add interesting options in the replies below.” This post was later deleted. Musk also appeared to have an issue with the War Monitor’s post that described Gaza as “Martyrs”. He wrote, “While reporting both sides is fair, please use maximally accurate words or I must withdraw my recommendation to follow your account.”

During the ongoing tensions between Israel and Gaza, an account impersonating The Jerusalem Post shared that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been hospitalised. This account was deleted later.

“The level of disinformation on Israel-Hamas war being algorithmically promoted on Twitter is unlike anything I’ve ever been exposed to in my career as a political scientist,” Ian Bremmer, president and founder of consulting firm Eurasia Group and its GZERO Media arm, posted on X recently.

As per Cybra, an Israeli analysis firm, one in five social media accounts are participating in online conversation about the Hamas attack and the aftermath. The firm had closely monitored US elections and tracked bots on Twitter. Cybra further revealed that around 30,000 fake accounts have been spreading pro-Hamas disinformation or gathering sensitive details about their targets.

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