Fact-Checking | Use of Old Images to Distort Reality Regarding Houthi Attacks in the Red Sea

On January 3, just hours after the United States and 13 other countries urged the Iran-backed Houthi group to immediately cease attacks on civilian vessels in the Red Sea, the Houthis launched and detonated a guided boat filled with explosives. Since November of this year, this group has been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea to show solidarity with Hamas, the Iran-backed militant group. These attacks have forced shipping companies to alter their routes, increasing both costs and the distance and time required. According to the 'PoliGraph' website, part of the Voice of America fact-checking project, the Houthis spread false claims as part of their propaganda method, asserting that they only attack ships linked to Israel or destined for Israel. On January 8, a group of social media users supporting the Houthis repeatedly shared misleading images and incorrectly linked them to current events in the Red Sea. One of these users, a verified account on 'X' named ma000111 (Manouch Kargar), spreads anti-Israel misinformation. This user uses the Islamic Republic's flag and the abbreviation 'IRGC' on their page. Additionally, the image shared by this user depicts a caricature of a man covered in the Israeli flag behind a podium, with a hand in a sleeve resembling the Islamic Republic's flag attempting to hit him. On January 3, he displayed a photo of a ship at sea with black smoke rising from it, claiming: 'Yemeni missiles bombed an Israeli ally; three explosions on a British ship in the Red Sea.' This claim is false. The photo, taken by AFP on October 6, 2002, shows the French supertanker 'Limburg' off the coast of the port of 'Al Mukalla' in southeastern Yemen, where a boat filled with explosives exploded next to it. At that time, the terrorist organization al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack, which left one dead and 12 injured. Before 'Manouch Kargar', on January 1, several anti-Israel users, including 'Meram Sosli' or 'Syrian Girl', another verified user on X with 200,000 followers, shared another image of a burning ship and again incorrectly attributed it to a Houthi attack on a ship linked to Israel. She cited the source of this photo as the 'Al Mayadeen' news channel, a Lebanese news network aligned with Hezbollah, and wrote: 'A new attack by the Houthis on a ship linked to Israel. When will these people learn that the pool is closed? Israel and America cannot save you.' Suleiman Ahmad, another verified user on X who calls himself an investigative journalist and has published other fabrications about the Israel-Hamas war, also shared this photo, stating: 'Breaking: New Houthi attack on a ship linked to Israel in the Red Sea.' However, the reality is that this image shows one of two oil tankers that were attacked in June 2019 in the Sea of Oman off the coast of Iran. The United States accused the Islamic Republic of carrying out these attacks, but Tehran denied the allegations. Both posts by 'Sosli' and 'Ahmad' were later labeled 'Reader Context', meaning their images are neither new nor indicative of Houthi attacks. PoliGraph has previously shown how users on X (formerly Twitter) republish old or unrelated videos as footage from the Israel-Hamas war, with many witnessing a significant increase in their viewership. Nevertheless, investigations by 'ProPublica' indicate that only a few of them face consequences for spreading misleading news to their large follower networks. Earlier research by 'NewsGuard', an information analysis network, showed that verified users on X were responsible for 74% of false or unsubstantiated claims on the platform during the first week of the Israel-Hamas war. In this context, one can refer to the European Commission's statement on December 18, which announced the initiation of an official process to address violations by X regarding 'the dissemination of illegal content related to Hamas's terrorist attacks against Israel' and other matters. Fact-Checking | Fake Claims About Israel's Iron Beam Deployment Destroying 21 Houthi Drones and Missiles in the Red Sea; Response from the US and UK to the 'Complex' Attack on International Shipping Initial Reports of Incidents in the Red Sea; US: We Will Respond to Houthi Movements End of Blinken's Trip to Israel; US Will Respond to Houthi Movements in the Red Sea Global Container Shipping Giant Warns Customers of 'Major Disruption' Sending Ships with 'Escort' Around the Red Sea Houthi Claims: 'We Guarantee Maritime Transport Security, the US Threatens Shipping in International Waters' Houthi Attack Failed One Day After the 'Final Warning' from the US and Its Allies Dialogue Between US and French Foreign Ministers; Blinken Called for Immediate End to Houthi's 'Illegal' Attacks UK Warning About Continued Attacks in the Red Sea: 'International Action' Ahead