A gruesome video of a man beheading a child went viral on social media last week — initially shared by a premium or verified Twitter account as evidence of Hamas’ attack on Israel. The video was viewed by millions online, and shared with hashtags #IslamIsTheProblem and #IsraelUnderAttack.
But was it a video of the escalated Israel-Palestine conflict? Fact-checkers found that the clip was unrelated to Israel or Palestinian militant group Hamas, and was instead shot in Syria in 2016. The false claims were quickly debunked by fact-checkers using multiple technological tools — but the damage had already been done.
The video had received around 2.5 million views by the time organisations reported it as misleading.
Credible information has been collateral damage in the Israel-Palestine conflict, in which at least 2,670 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis have been killed so far.
Within days of the escalation that began on October 8, fact-checkers reported being faced with a huge volume of misinformation and disinformation.
The fact-checkers who spoke to Newslaundry called the barrage of misinformation “unprecedented,” with many pointing to the role of X, formerly known as Twitter, in fuelling it.
Misinformation included clips from a video game depicted as Hamas shooting down an Israeli helicopter, an old video falsely shared with claims that Palestinians were faking death, a clip from an ad film shooting posted as a visual from the Israel-Palestine conflict, and BTS footage of an...
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