MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Hamas' surprise attack on Israel and the escalation into war over the weekend has people in Israel, Gaza, around the world seeking information, seeking facts about what is happening. But social media and messaging apps are awash in viral rumors, also false, misleading images and videos. NPR's Shannon Bond joins us to disentangle some of these narratives. Hey, Shannon.
SHANNON BOND, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: Tell me what people are encountering. They go online. They're trying to find the latest news. And...
BOND: Well, they are seeing a flood of posts claiming to show what is happening in Israel and Gaza. But not all of them are what they seem. So, for example, one video that's been making the rounds shows what looks to be a helicopter being shot down with a shoulder-mounted weapon. But that is actually not a video at all. It's a clip from a video game. There are other videos circulating that are from real videos from actual conflicts, but they may be months or even years old. In some cases, they're not from Israel or Gaza at all. I spoke with Achiya Schatz. He's executive director of FakeReporter, a watchdog group in Israel that tracks misinformation. And he says this is all the result of a lack of verified information from credible sources at a time of high interest. And then all of this is then getting amplified by, in some cases, people with political agendas. And it's particularly bad on Twitter, now known as X, where Elon Musk as owner...
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