Social media companies criticized as Israel-Hamas war misinformation spreads rampantly

Read the Full Transcript

• Geoff Bennett:

  The world is watching much of the violence and horrors of this war through traditional media and news broadcasts, but millions are also getting their information through social media.

  But many posts are from unverified accounts, including some that are spreading misinformation and outright lies.

  Laura Barrón-López focuses on that part of the story.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Geoff, some of the harshest criticism is being directed at the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, and its owner, Elon Musk.

  The European Union wrote to both X and Meta, which owns Facebook, urging the companies to take down misleading posts and videos and comply with European law. Some posts can look real. This one, for example, included videos supposedly showing footage of a Hamas militant taking down an Israeli helicopter. But that video is actually from a video game.

  Similarly, this video of an Israeli strike in Gaza is real, but it happened in May, not this week, as it was portrayed.

  For a closer look, I'm joined by Emerson Brooking, a senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab and co-author of "LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media."

  Emerson, thanks for joining.

  I want to show one more example of misinformation spreading across platforms like X. This video states that Hamas captured Israeli generals. And it was posted by an account with a blue check mark. It's been viewed by nearly two million people, but it isn't actually what it says that it is. It's an older video of authorities in Azerbaijan capturing a separatist leader.

  So why is misinformation like this so dangerous, and what examples of it are you seeing across X?

• Emerson Brooking, Atlantic Council Digital Forensic Research Lab:

  Well, first, Laura, I should say that disinformation is endemic in warfare. It's not specific to a particular platform, but there are things that platforms can do to make it better or worse.

  And in the case of X, Elon Musk has made decisions quite deliberately which exacerbate this problem, which make it harder to tell the truth and distinguish terrorist and war propaganda from reality on the ground.

  The first big thing he's done is essentially removed the ability to find and verify credible accounts, journalists or other people who have been vetted and trusted. And then, second, he's introduced a for-profit motive, which didn't previously exist in the platform, which incentivizes accounts, often under specious identities, to share false content as quickly as possible in order to maximize their own revenue.

  And all of this matters because so many policymakers, so many journalists, so many people still use this platform to understand what's happening. Now it's become much harder.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  You mentioned two changes that Elon Musk has made to the platform. He also laid off a number of employees that handled content moderation and made sure that accounts followed the rules of the platform.

  So, how much do you think Elon Musk himself is to blame for the spread of misinformation X?

• Emerson Brooking:

  I think Elon Musk bears significant personal responsibility for the state of platform in this time of crisis.

  And it came from a place of arrogance. He said repeatedly that he doesn't believe in, what he says, the so-called mainstream media. He wants to tear down all gatekeepers, even when gatekeepers are performing an invaluable public function.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  And Telegram is a secure messaging app that is also being used to spread misinformation. It has some 700 million users, and it's become an outlet for Hamas militants to share their videos.

  Can you explain the significance of Telegram and how it also contributes to this fog of war?

• Emerson Brooking:

  Of course.

  So, whenever you see propaganda footage from the conflict today, chances are they did originated on Telegram. There are hundreds, even thousands of different Telegram groups which are linked to Hamas or associated organizations.

  Essentially, almost all primary video, primary evidence of the war is coming from these Telegram groups, which are essentially unmoderated. Because Telegram is not a U.S. company. It's not easily subject to international law, it's extremely unlikely that content moderation action will ever be taken against Telegram itself.

  So this content is always going to be there, but what effects it has when it spreads to other social media like X, those are still decisions where we have some control.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  And the E.U., the European Union, has warned X and Meta about this content that is spreading across their site, specifically saying that some of it appears to be illegal content.

  So what do you make of that and what can we expect if there will be any penalties for these companies?

• Emerson Brooking:

  So the E.U. has recently put into force their Digital Services Act, which is a sweeping piece of legislation that really changes the rules of the road for social media companies. And, also, it increases their obligations.

  It increases the sorts of material that they have to share with European governments, and it institutes quite severe penalties for companies that fail to meet those standards. It appears, in the case of X, that they have essentially ignored the law.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  What advice, Emerson, do you give to everyday news consumers, to everyday people who are using these apps on a regular basis and are trying to sift through credible sources and not credible sources and misinformation?

• Emerson Brooking:

  Well, look, Laura, I have spent more than a decade now studying the relationship between social media and war.

  I help lead a team at the Digital Forensic Research Lab focused on war crimes verification, on tracking conflicts in real time. And my most important piece of advice is to not believe anything you see online, especially now.

  If you see something in this fast-moving and confusing stage of the conflict, if you see something circulating online, don't believe it until you have seen significant corroboration and have verified it from multiple sources, because chances are as good as not that it's a fake intended to mislead you.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Emerson Brooking of the Atlantic Council, thank you for your time.

• Emerson Brooking:

  Thank you.