The Information War In Gaza & Israel

Uploaded on 2023-10-25 in TECHNOLOGY-Key Areas-Social Media, NEWS-Cybersecurity News, INTELLIGENCE--International, FREE TO VIEW

In common with the early phase of the conflict in Ukraine, there is a shortage of verified information on events in the violent conflict in Israel and Gaza and what information there is to be found is charged with emotions.

Fast-moving news events have made it hard to verify information or to find trustworthy news. Consequently, social media platforms have played a big part in filling the empty space. Indeed, social media platforms have seen a surge of misinformation about the conflict, like doctored images and incorrectly labelled videos.

Social media has played a critical role in previous conflicts and wider access to the Internet and the spread of smartphones has reached a peak, demonstrating the power of the algorithms deployed to deliver information to social media users to portray the human cost of violent events.

Since October 7th, when Hamas terrorists crossed the border, social media has become part of the information war, with many questions over whether fake news is being used to manipulate the international response to these events.

There are reports of a video recently circulated that apparently falsely claimed to show Hamas kidnapping a Jewish baby. The video garnered more than a million views in one post alone. However, the video was recorded some time September and had nothing to do with kidnapping, or indeed with Gaza. Disinformation is not limited to accounts seeking to undermine violence against hostages. Profiles supporting the actions of the Israeli government have also shared misleading and hateful content.

Successful attempts to distort and confuse the truth of events can have serious implications for the international community when it comes to investigating allegations of war crimes and providing aid.

In the past, both the Israeli government and Hamas have faced accusations of trying to distort online narratives with "bot" networks, inauthentic accounts used to repeatedly push divisive or misleading ideas. There are clues we can use to identify an account as inauthentic. For example, if a profile is only recently created and is suddenly sharing a large amount of misleading content, then it is more likely to be a false source.

In August 2023 the EU introduced The Digital Services Act (DSA) which requires the major online platforms, those with over 45 million EU users, to proactively remove "illegal content" and be ready to demonstrate they have taken measures, if requested to do so.

The DSA allows the EU to conduct interviews and inspections and, if it is unsatisfied, proceed to a formal investigation. In cases of non-compliance, the DSA gives the EU Commission powers to issue fines and to request EU courts to enforce temporarily ban a platform inside the EU. Recently, TikTok said it "immediately" took action to counter misinformation after the EU warned TikTok's CEO to "urgently step up" efforts, and "spell out" how it was complying with EU law.

While disinformation spreads on all social media sites, X, previously known as Twitter, is one of the most influential and is a major channel where users go first to find information on breaking news and developing events.

Since being acquired by Elon Musk, X has relaxed its moderation processes and staff dealing with disinformation and hate speech have been made redundant by the company. Posts with inflammatory and antisemitic accounts, along with demonstrably false content have become more common on X and false information has become easier to spread.

AlJazeera: APNews: BBC: BBC: BBCWorld: Arab CenterDC: Washington Post:

Image: Arkadiusz Warguła

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