"Almost all of the most viral posts reviewed by WIRED on Saturday came from accounts with blue check marks, meaning they pay X for its premium service and could be eligible to earn money based on how much engagement their posts generate, even if the content is false. While some posts with disinformation have a community note appended beneath them to correct the record, they remain up on the site, and it's unclear how many people viewed them before the notes appeared."
"Elon Musk's social media platform is a verifiable mess: In some cases, alleged video footage of the attack shared in posts on X are actually months or years old. In several posts, video footage of apparent attacks have been attributed to incorrect locations. A number of images shared on X appear to be altered or generated with AI. Other posts attempt to pass off video game footage as scenes from the conflict."
"Under Musk's stewardship, X has become a haven for disinformation, especially during major global breaking news events. At the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, and more recently during anti-immigration enforcement protests in LA, the platform has drowned in inaccurate and faulty posts."
Following the announcement of a major US-Israeli combat operation against Iran, X became flooded with disinformation about the attack's locations and scale. Hundreds of posts with millions of views contained misleading claims, including months-old or years-old video footage presented as current events, videos attributed to incorrect locations, AI-generated or altered images, and video game footage misrepresented as conflict scenes. Most viral posts came from blue check mark accounts whose owners pay for premium service and earn money based on engagement, regardless of content accuracy. While some posts received community notes for correction, they remained visible on the platform. One viral video falsely claimed to show ballistic missiles over Dubai when it actually depicted Iranian missiles fired at Tel Aviv in October 2024, accumulating over 4.4 million views.
#disinformation-on-social-media #x-platform-moderation #iran-israel-military-conflict #viral-misinformation #content-verification
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