Propaganda on social media in full swing amid Israel-Hamas conflict

GAZA: As the Israel-Hamas war rages, regulators and analysts say a wave of online disinformation risks further inflaming passions and escalating the conflict in an electronic fog of war.

Supporters of both sides in the battle between Israel and Hamas try to bolster their own side’s narrative and cast doubts on the other’s.

The fact checking unit has identified numerous cases of social media posts using fake images and information about the Israel-Hamas conflict, and others in

which confusion rather than deliberate disinformation appears to have heightened tensions.

An X account under the name Farida Khan claiming to be an Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza posted a message saying they had a video of a “Hamas missile landing in the hospital” in Tuesday’s incident. Al Jazeera subsequently alerted social media users that the account had no ties to the news service. Al Jazeera said it does not employ a person with the name Farida Khan. The account was later removed.

A video of Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking about Ukraine last year was shared this month with fabricated subtitles warning the U.S. not to interfere in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Amid genuine images showing dead bodies of those killed by Hamas on Oct. 7, a 2015 video of the lynching of a 16-year-old girl in Guatemala has been misrepresented online as showing a young Israeli woman being burnt by a “Palestinian mob”.

After receiving online criticism about blue and white flags used in her act, the pop singer Pink posted a tweet saying: “I am getting many threats because people mistakenly believe I am flying Israeli flags in my show. I am not. I have been using Poi flags since the beginning of this tour. These were used many, many years ago by the M ori people in New Zealand.”

The Hamas Authority for Refugee Affairs has called Israel’s already notorious directive that all civilians should evacuate the northern part of the Gaza Strip “fake propaganda”.

Whoever wrote that is dead wrong and was certainly not involved in the planning of last week’s armed incursion into Israel carried out by the Palestinian group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. The last thing that matters in any propaganda operation is whether there is any truth in it.

Video of a young actor being filmed lying in a pool of fake blood shows propaganda being created for use in the Israel-Hamas war.

The video is behind-the-scenes footage from the making of “Empty Place,” a short film about Palestinians lost to Israeli occupation. Some on social media are claiming it shows Israelis creating propaganda, while others are claiming that it shows Palestinians doing the same.

Social media users on both sides of the latest Israel-Hamas war are sharing the video, each falsely alleging that it’s proof the other group is creating propaganda about their own.