One year ago on October 7, 2023, Hamas militants launched an attack against Israel killing 1,200 and seizing 250 hostages, starting an Israel-Hamas war which has caused thousands of Palestinian casualties as well as widespread misinformation campaigns throughout 2019. Images and videos which had been edited or taken out of context filled social media platforms, distorting reality. While some users attempted to downplay casualties by suggesting “crisis actors” had been employed, others mischaracterized American involvement in the conflict and created false assumptions about its extent. Experts noted that during times of crisis, particularly at their inception, an information vacuum often forms and misinformation can fill it. “People crave truth; however, limited information available leaves opportunities open for others to exploit this,” according to Todd Helmus, an experienced senior behavioral scientist specializing in disinformation and violent extremism from Rand Corp, an impartial think tank. Helmus noted the extremely polarized nature of this war has further fed misinformation campaigns, inciting people’s strong emotions around specific subjects to look for information which supports their positions and validates them, she stated. PolitiFact fact-checked numerous claims related to Israel, Gaza and Middle Eastern conflicts.” Here’s an outline of how misleading and false narratives have unfolded over the last year: shortly after the attack, misleading photos and videos quickly went viral online, distorting facts around this conflict and further distorting its truths. Videos released prior to the war, featuring airstrikes and missile attacks, were taken out of context and shared as though they represented recent events. Other social media posts attempted to pass off video game imagery as real life depictions of fighting. Some videos were altered to present false narratives, including allegations that CNN staged an attack near Israel-Gaza border and Las Vegas Sphere displayed Israeli flag. Valerie Wirtschafter, a foreign policy fellow with Brookings Institution’s think tank, explained that when people lack credible information they seek any source they can get their hands on; often this leads them to stumble across misinformatory or fake content they find online. Wirtschafter noted: “Often this early content can be shared unwittingly on online platforms such as clicks and views can translate directly to financial gain – creating an incentive to fill any void with false but sensationalist material early on,” Wirtschafter suggested. At the outset of the conflict, conservative broadcasters and social media also made allegations that images depicting casualties and injuries in Gaza had been falsified using crisis actors with budgeted costumes and makeup artists who created realistic injuries. Some posts even purported to display crisis actors dressed up like victims to create false-life scenarios for photoshopping purposes. An October 2023 Instagram video claimed to depict Palestinian crisis actors “working overtime to deceive the world during Israel-Hamas hostilities”, when in reality that footage belonged to a film project predating any conflict whatsoever. Rob Schmitt, a Newsmax broadcaster, cast doubt upon a clip posted to an MSNBC segment featuring Palestinian social media influencer Saleh Aljafarawi as being part of a crisis actor set whose hands contained fake blood. Images Schmitt shared purport to depict Aljafarawi as an activist or “freedom fighter”, or even blood donor; however, several photos are either not of Aljafarawi, or were taken out of context from social media accounts belonging to him or taken without his approval. Furthermore, one viral video claimed violence between Israel and Gaza is “fake”. A video appeared online showing “a dead boy coming to life after hearing an air raid siren.” Although recent, this clip had circulated online since at least 2020 as misinformers linked Israel with other catastrophes that had unfolded during wartime. Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed March 26, 2024 due to container ship impacts with support columns, prompting allegations from anti-Israel X posts that this collapse had been orchestrated by them. Federal and Maryland state officials stated the incident was neither intended nor related to terrorism; even Wikipedia entries purporting to show Israel’s role didn’t connect them directly to this incident as the posts suggested. Wikipedia pages can be edited at will by anyone, thus editing does not prove Israel was behind its collapse. There have also been claims regarding events predating Israel-Hamas war that surfaced online such as November 2023 when Instagram post claimed Jews were responsible for 9/11 attacks. Al-Qaida terrorists, not Jews or Israel, were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations began appearing on university campuses beginning late 2023 through May 2024 with student protestors advocating divestment from Israel. Protesters leveled false claims about Harvard University replacing its flag with that of Palestine and Jewish students being barred from entering Columbia. Claims that billionaire George Soros paid campus protesters by providing grants to organizations linked with protests were debunked through our fact check; his grant-giving organization, Open Society Foundation, had several degrees of separation between themselves and specific protestors on campus. In April, allegations that “outside agitators” were to blame for campus protests quickly gained steam across the nation. Police, city and university officials from different corners blamed outsiders but provided little tangible proof. Law enforcement experts told PolitiFact that police may often perceive “outside agitators” to be individuals paid to move between cities as agents of disruption and violence, according to historians. Furthermore, government and law officials commonly employ this narrative in an attempt to delegitimize protestors’ demands by portraying them as outside agents who pay agitators’s fees for instigation of protests against injustice or government negligence. One misinformation trend involved U.S. involvement in the Israel-Hammas war. Hours after news of Hamas attacks against Israel surfaced, former President Donald Trump issued a statement criticizing former Vice President Joe Biden and asserting falsely that American taxpayers funded these attacks against Israeli targets. Trump may have been alluding to $6 billion unfrozen from Iran under a hostage deal struck between Iran and Biden’s administration; but no U.S. taxpayer dollars were included within that figure. Social media users frequently mischaracterize the amount of aid approved by President Biden for Israel and Palestinian people living in Gaza and West Bank. Congress granted Israel at least $12.5 billion in military assistance between October 2023 and May 2024, the Council on Foreign Relations reported. At that date, according to U.S. Agency for International Development estimates, America had pledged one billion in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians living in Gaza and West Bank over the previous year. Trump also asserted, during months into Israel-Hamas war, that Vice-President Joe Biden wanted to immediately stop providing aid to Israel; which he denied as false. Biden announced during a May CNN interview that certain weapons might not be provided if Israel engaged in an assault against Rafah city located in southern Gaza. Biden did not state whether all aid from the U.S. to Israel had been cutoff; only specific arms might not be supplied if full scale assault took place on Rafah. Recently, the conflict has spread into Lebanon – along with misinformation. Tens of thousands of pagers and walkie talkies used by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah went off in Lebanon causing massive explosions that killed and injured scores; U.S. officials speculated Israel as responsible. After these attacks, social media users misinformed users by reporting falsely that iPhones were also being attacked and destroyed in Lebanon, but evidence for this claim can’t be found as it predated the war and there have been no credible reports that iPhones were specifically targeted devices. On Sept. 28, Hezbollah confirmed its leader was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon, although an online viral video compilation falsely purporting to depict this attack didn’t match with known details about it. PolitiFact originally published this fact check which can be found here with all relevant sources and references included here.
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