Israel-Hamas hoaxes and hate speech on X continue, as one state agency quits

The row over widespread Israel-Hamas hoaxes and antisemitic hate speech on X continues, with the social network’s CEO insisting the company is taking the matter seriously, while others are unconvinced …

Background

Since the large-scale, horrific terrorist attack on Israeli civilians, social networks have been plagued by disinformation, hoax videos, and antisemitic hate speech – along with posts glorifying terrorism. The problem has been at its most acute on X, the network formerly known as Twitter.

EU Commissioner Thierry Breton this week sent an urgent letter to X owner Elon Musk, advising that much of the “violent and terrorist content” was illegal, and the company did not appear to be removing it in a timely fashion, as required by EU law.

Following the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel, we have indications that your platform is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU […]

When you receive notices of illegal content in the EU, you must be timely, diligent and objective in taking action and removing the relevant content when warranted. We have, from qualified sources, reports about potentially illegal content circulating on your service despite flags from relevant authorities […]

Given the urgency, I also expect you to be in contact with the relevant law enforcement
authorities and Europol, and ensure that you respond promptly to their requests.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino responds

Yaccarino replied, stating that the company is actively responding, removing illegal content, and flagging misinformation.

There is no place on X for terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups and we continue to remove such accounts in real time, including proactive efforts. Since the terrorist attack on Israel, we have taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content, while Community Notes are visible on thousands of posts, generating millions of impressions.

Journalists say X now almost useless as news source

However, journalists and researchers told Wired that while Twitter (as was) used to be an extremely good way to obtain on-the-ground reports and media from conflicts around the world, there are now so many fake posts that the network is all but useless.

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 […]

Rather than being shown verified and fact-checked information, X users were presented with video game footage passed off as footage of a Hamas attack, and images of firework celebrations in Algeria presented as Israeli strikes on Hamas. There were faked pictures of soccer superstar Ronaldo holding the Palestinian flag, while a three-year-old video from the Syrian civil war repurposed to look like it was taken this weekend.

As a result, Peden says that he and his fellow OSINT researchers have to spend their time debunking years-old content rather than verifying and sharing real footage from the conflict.

Germany’s federal anti-discrimination agency quits

TNW reports that there is now so much antisemitic and other hate speech on the platform that one government agency has taken the decision to stop using X.

Germany’s federal anti-discrimination agency (FADA) said Wednesday it was quitting X, formerly known as Twitter, due to an “enormous rise” in hate speech […]

FADA’s call to counter disinformation and hate speech on X was echoed by digital minister Volker Wissing. He complained in a post about the increase in anti-Semitic, hate-inciting posts, especially since the Hamas militant group launched its surprise terrorist attack on Israel on Saturday morning. 

These include doctored images, misleading claims, and mislabeled videos that make it difficult for anyone using the platform to separate the truth of the conflict from reality. 

Beyond the Israel-Hamas hoaxes, there are also growing concerns about the impact inadequate moderation is likely to have on next year’s presidential elections.

Photo: Markus Spiske/Unsplash

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