As the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted, X, the social network owned by Elon Musk, became a hub for fake videos, photos, and misleading information about the situation.
Despite efforts to combat this disinformation, the platform faced challenges as misleading content continued to spread.
A video posted on X falsely claimed to show Palestinian fighters killing Israeli citizens, despite being flagged by a Community Note as members of Israeli law enforcement. This video remained online, accumulating millions of impressions, and was widely shared by various X accounts, including some with verified checkmarks.
Disinformation extended to other social networks like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, but X faced additional hurdles due to Musk’s policies allowing users to pay for verification and substantial layoffs within X’s Trust and Safety teams.
While X reported the removal of newly-created Hamas-affiliated accounts and the escalation of posts containing graphic media and hate speech, the platform struggled to fully curb the spread of misleading content. Experts argue that major tech companies still grapple with disinformation issues and must do more to prevent its proliferation.
