"The American embassy in Lebanon is being evacuated. American citizens are advised to leave the country as soon as possible," says an October 11, 2023 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The post comes from "Sprinter," an account that has previously shared misinformation under different variations of the same alias.
Similar claims spread across X and other platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, in several languages.
The rumors took off as tensions escalated at Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement signaled that it could increase its military involvement in support of Hamas.
The Palestinian militant group attacked Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people and taking some 199 hostages in the worst assault in the country's history. Israel's retaliatory air strikes have killed at least 2,750 people and leveled neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip, the densely populated, impoverished territory governed by Hamas that has been under a blockade for years.
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