NEW DELHI: One of the biggest casualties of any armed conflict is the notion of truth. And nowhere has that adage felt truer than in the recent unrest that has transpired in the Middle East, involving Israel and Hamas. The conflict that has now stretched into its third week has turned social media into a melting pot of misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda.
Several pages supportive of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza went all out to circulate graphic footage allegedly depicting Hamas’ atrocities. One such video pertaining to a pregnant woman being assaulted by the terrorists had left netizens shell-shocked. Fact-checking confirmed that the said video had nothing to do with the Israel-Hamas stand-off and that it was related to an act of retribution carried out by hitmen in Mexico.
Miscreants have also been targeting high profile celebrities, sportspersons and actors, alleging that they have sided with either the Palestinian cause or the Israeli occupation. Representatives of such individuals have in turn taken to social media to refute or clarify their stand on the conflict, considering the potential for off-the cuff remarks snowballing into something serious.
The international community isn’t taking things lying down. Educational institutions in Israel, as well as Jewish schools in America, have urged parents to delete social media apps such as Instagram, TikTok and X (Twitter) from their children’s smartphones to prevent them from witnessing violent footage related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Stakeholders are concerned how Hamas might weaponise social media and flood various apps with footage of Israeli hostages.
We have seen how videos of two elderly Israeli women kidnapped by the group had gone viral, with messages attempting to reinforce that the captors were being cordial to them. These videos were juxtaposed alongside footage depicting the ‘ruthless’ members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dealing with ordinary Palestinian citizens in the aftermath of the recent conflict.
In India, a war of words erupted between the ruling dispensation and the Congress, which had supposedly voiced its support for the Palestinian cause, without taking into account the casualties on the Israeli side. While the BJP termed the development as an episode of the Congress being held hostage to minority vote bank politics, the opposition went on damage control mode, countering it with claims of Atal Bihari Vajpayee espousing the need for political agency for the Palestinians. Needless to say, cyberspace had a field day with numerous iterations of what was said, and what was left unsaid.
Interestingly, this week, European Union officials demanded that Meta and TikTok detail their efforts to curb illegal content and disinformation during the Israel-Hamas war, while flexing the power of a new law that threatens billions in fines if the tech giants fail to do enough to protect users. These large tech platforms are now subject to content-related regulations under the Digital Services Act. It requires them to stop the spread of fake news, while addressing the vicious cycle of engagement-driven, algorithmically-recommended content (read boosting the visibility of posts made by verified blue-tick accounts, which can now be purchased for a fee). It wouldn’t be an understatement to regard the unchecked proliferation of fake news on social media as a risk factor for geopolitical instability in the days to come.