Rise in Mis/Disinformation Causing Shift in Social Media Landscape

A Tweet recently went viral that read “BREAKING – Hamas militants started a new air assault on parts of Israel!!!” The Tweet had high-resolution video evidence of the air assault and showed a soldier being thrown to the ground by the blow. Twitter users were appalled by the sight. 

Soon after, a BBC reporter shared a Tweet in response, stating that the post was completely false and the video evidence was footage from the video game Arma 3. 

As the world figures out how to use social media in war time, the spreading of dangerous false information of this nature is quickly on the rise.  

The Israel-Hamas war is not the first large-scale international conflict to occur in the age of social media. Plenty of social media movements have played out alongside real-world conflict over the last 25+ years including prominent hashtag activism movements #MeToo, #BLM, #OscarsSoWhite and more. What we’ve learned time and time again from these movements is that misinformation is a guarantee when we use internet platforms to share and discuss information pertaining to conflict. 

The primary platform for internet activism has historically been Twitter. According to the book Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time, Claire Díaz-Ortiz says that “the root of Twitter's success is in its power as an open real-time information network,” that “allows individuals to share minute-by-minute information about what is happening in their lives, their communities, and their world.” Since its early days, Twitter has been a place where regular people could receive real-time information from a variety of sources ranging from other regular people to reporters to celebrities around the world. It gave individuals a platform to share their experiences, and let them be heard by large audiences. Additionally, Twitter’s interface is designed for sharing words and dialogues, instead of photos, like most other platforms.  

Social media users have begun to see faults in Twitter’s information sharing capabilities. According to a report by the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), Twitter has “enabled misinformation, conspiracy theories, and disinformation campaigns to reach the mainstream more easily and quickly than ever before.” Users have the freedom to frame their posts however they want with a decent chance of going viral and having their statements taken as fact. Even the Twitter-verified accounts that many of us follow for the sake of receiving truthful information aren’t guaranteed accurate. The blue verification checks indicate that Twitter has confirmed the account is run by a “prominently recognized individual or brand,” not that they publish accurate or credible information.    

To help promote accurate and credible information, Twitter launched a fact checking feature called Community Notes, originally Birdwatch, in January of 2021. This feature gave users themselves the ability to call out misleading information in the notes section of posts to warn other users about potential fallacies, and to engage in conversation about the shortcomings. To remain true to its mission of fostering “free expression globally and [ensuring] that conversations are based on reliable information and healthy discourse,” Twitter decided on this “community-driven approach” to fact checking that wouldn’t discourage free speech in any way.  

Community Notes has not proved to be strong enough to stop misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war. On October 10th, Twitter– known now as X– received a letter from Thierry Breton, European Union (EU) Commissioner for Internal Market. The letter was sent directly to Elon Musk via an X post and said the EU had indications that the platform was “being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation.” Breton reminded Musk about the content moderation requirements in the EU’s Digital Services Act, and gave him three urgent measures to take: (1) be more transparent about impermissible content and enforce it more intensely, (2) act quickly on notices of illegal content and diligently remove content when necessary, and (3) keep disinformation mitigation measures enforced and in place. 

While Musk argued back and forth with the EU on an X thread, the Israel-Hamas war raged on, and misinformation about the conflict overtook the platform. X’s fact checking features failed so miserably that users were getting away with posting commentary from world leaders completely out of context or with false translations to alter meaning. This is known as disinformation, or “false information purposely spread to influence public opinion or obscure the truth” that is most “often spread through social media and can cause people to mistrust reliable sources,” according to the U.S. Diplomacy Center.

Disinformation is especially prominent on X. As a result, some users have decided to dust off the old Threads app they put to rest over the summer, days after downloading the platform. Threads, an X equivalent, was launched by Meta on July 5th and garnered a whopping 44 million daily active users world-wide by July 7th. But by July 21st, that number plummeted to 13 million, and continued to shrink rapidly in the days that followed.  

Tech journalist Casey Newton published a Platformer article entitled “How the attacks in Israel are changing Threads,” where he dives into the ways that X’s current disinformation dilemma could be benefiting their competitor, Threads. Newton says that because Threads is a smaller platform, it could be “a less attractive target for trolls” looking to share their fake news with the world. On top of that, Meta has made “investments in trust and safety” that Newton says we’re now seeing pay off. Upon launching Threads, Meta gave free verification checks to reporters and journalists, displayed article headlines on the app instead of links only, and has been eradicating troll networks. 

The current state of social media is polarized and dynamic, like the war itself. As the conflict progresses, and we continue to engage in critical discussions, bear in mind the impact of the provenance of information and knowledge. Question yourself, question others and question your sources. If you rely on X for your news, consider downloading Threads to see what people are sharing there. We’re living through a time of devastating humanitarian crises that bring out highly impassioned reactions. When in doubt, listen, read and watch as much as you can. And remember, it’s okay to be quiet and focus your attention on absorbing information.