Battle on Social Media to Deceive the Audience; Continued Spread of Misinformation on 'X'

Despite X's (formerly Twitter) efforts to combat the spread of false information, premium users of the platform continue to use it to disseminate misinformation regarding the conflicts between Israel and Hamas. According to Paligraf, their tactics include recycling old videos and misattributing them to either the Israeli armed forces or Hamas and Palestinians, depending on their loyalty to one side. One example is a video of an attack on a church in the Philippines in 2017. Over 300 people were killed in the conflict between Philippine security forces and Maute militants affiliated with the ISIS terrorist group, who seized the southern city of Marawi in May 2017. A verified 'X' user shared a clip of the armed Maute men attacking the Marawi church with the misleading caption: 'The #Hamas terrorists who are destroying the Baptist church in #Gaza and kicking the statue of Jesus, is their struggle to reclaim their land or a jihad against any other religion in this world, ask yourself!!' Others also shared the same video with similar messaging. Another 'X' user claimed that this video shows the Israeli Defense Forces desecrating a church in Gaza. A different verified user with over 110,000 followers, who regularly spreads misinformation in favor of Russia, posted another version of the same video and falsely described it as an attack by Syrian rebels: 'The ignorance in the United States/EU is shocking. The terrorists seen in this video were 'moderate rebels' armed, trained, and funded by the US/NATO. These jihadists previously attacked Assad, the president of Syria, who is favored by Syrian Christians. So, do not use this to justify the bombing of Gaza.' This post garnered 7 million views and over 30,000 likes. These are just a few examples among countless accounts that have posted fake information, photos, and videos on X. X claims it has the right under its rules to remove 'media shared in misleading ways or with false content' that can lead to 'widespread disruption of public issues, impact public safety, or cause serious harm.' However, the post linking the church attack in the Philippines to Hamas's actions in Gaza was never removed. A recent study by 'NewsGuard,' an information analysis company, has shown that verified 'X' users, indicated by a 'blue check,' constituted 74% of all the most viral false or unprovable claims on the platform during the first week of the Israel-Hamas war, which began on October 7. Premium 'X' subscribers have a financial incentive to post viral content, which includes misinformation. This is because if verified users have 500 followers and generate five million views on X over three consecutive months, they qualify for a share of advertising revenue. In a separate study, the European Commission reported that the engagement of Kremlin-supporting accounts spreading misinformation, especially regarding Ukraine, increased by 36% after Elon Musk, the company's CEO, decided to lift stringent measures against Kremlin-supporting accounts. In September, Vera Jourova, the European Commission's vice president, described X as 'the platform with the highest percentage of false or misleading posts.'