Lies about Irael-Palestine conflict spread on social network

‘Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to Sheba Hospital,’ read a post on social media immediately after the surprise attack on Israel by the Palestinian armed group Hamas in the early morning of Saturday. This article, which included a photo of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the name of a hospital, was quickly read by more than 700,000 people but was confirmed to be false.

False information about the war between Israel and Hamas is quickly spreading through social networking services (SNS). False information is increasingly being used for propaganda in international conflicts, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine. There are growing concerns that various media-related policies introduced by Tesla CEO Elon Musk after acquiring X promote the spread of false information.

Concerns are particularly high over the fact that such false information comes from the Blue Check account, which X assigns to those with high social influence. After Musk acquired Twitter and converted Blue Check to paid accounts, many pointed out that it is being abused as an epicenter of false information. Public concerns are growing over X’s plans to allow the upload of only images and exclude titles when media articles are linked, which will make it easier to manipulate facts.

Musk also heightened controversy by recommending the accounts of two X users who are criticized for distorting accurate reports of Israel-Hamas reports. Musk deleted the post after criticism.


Hyoun-Soo Kim kimhs@donga.com