Israel-Hamas War: Elon Musk’s X Flooded With Fake Videos, Photos & Posts

Many people turned to X for breaking news about the Israel-Hamas war. The point worth mentioning here is that they were being hit with old videos, fake photos, and video game footage at a level researchers have never seen before. Due to all this mess, several posts about the Israeli attack caused confusion, misinformation, and conflict on Elon Musk’s X/Twitter. According to the researchers, Musk’s acquisition and policy changes have changed the social media site into an unreliable resource during times of crisis.

After the attack, several unverified photos and videos of missile air strikes, destruction of buildings, and other depictions of military violence resurfaced on Elon Musk’s X. It is pertinent to mention here that most of these posts repurposed old images of armed conflict, passing them off as new. Moreover, they were pushed by unknown accounts with blue checkmarks. It looked as if those accounts had bought verification under X’s premium subscription service, formerly known as Twitter Blue.

In addition to that, some X accounts posted military footage that surfaced from video games. Far-right pundits also made viral falsehoods on the platform. For instance, Mike Rothschild, a conspiracy theory researcher, stated:

X has been under Elon Musk’s ownership since October 2022. It has made significant changes to its content safety policies since then. However, its consequences are now glaringly apparent in this moment of geopolitical crisis. The impact on X has been significant. It made it almost impossible to tell what is a fact, rumor, conspiracy theory, or trolling.