EU officials warned Musk that his website was being used to “spread illegal content and disinformation.” Photo: Alain Jocard/AFP
Twitter is flooded with online fake news and disinformation about the conflict between Israel and Hamas as policies introduced by owner Elon Musk fail their first major test.
Twitter, which has now been renamed in X, was inundated with fake videos and bot accounts following the Hamas massacre of hundreds of Israelis on October 7.
The platform that Musk had tried to remake as a bastion of online free speech has struggled to contain the situation after its billionaire owner laid off thousands of employees and rolled back previous moderation policies.
Musk was warned. EU officials said its site was being used to “spread illegal content and disinformation.”
Thierry Breton, the czar of the EU internal market, wrote to Musk demanding a response within 24 hours to the social network's response to the false information. «I would like to remind you that once a potential investigation has been launched and non-compliance has been established, fines may be imposed,» Breton said.
On Wednesday, Michelle Donelan, the technology minister, met with representatives from Meta, Google, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok. demanding that tech companies step up efforts to remove posts glorifying Hamas and protect children from violent images.
She said Hamas supporters were able to “spread their horrendous content to people around the world,” which “haunts us all, not least our children.”
She added that tech companies “can and «must do more to stop Hamas supporters spreading violent terrorism and anti-Semitism around the world.» She ordered companies to write to her about their plans.
All major social networks are rushing to remove posts that violate their misinformation rules. But Twitter's response has drawn particular attention following Musk's sweeping changes to how the site handles false claims.
Since buying the business a year ago, Musk has reduced the size of the company's moderation team and instead began asking Twitter users to verify information on the site with through a process known as Community Notes.
Response to EU requests. Breton on Twitter Musk said: «Our policy is to keep everything open and transparent and I know the EU supports this approach.»
But the limitations of this system are obvious. It's not hard to find videos that are obviously false on Twitter. Widely shared posts include videos of old conflicts or footage from video games. One video from the game Arma 3 shows helicopters shot down, which some sources claim are Israeli casualties. The video has been viewed 230,000 times.
This video, viewed 230,000 times, is not footage of a Hamas militant shooting down an Israeli helicopter. This is from the video game Arma 3. pic.twitter.com/bj8h7zbGKb
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) October 7, 2023
Although a large number of posts have been flagged as misleading, these user-generated warnings failed to stop the flow of misinformation. In many cases, copies of the same fake videos are widely shared on other accounts without a label.
Twitter has started paying accounts that get more views on their posts, creating an incentive to share statements that will get more attention. .
Meanwhile, Musk's new user verification system gives accounts a «blue check» if they pay a monthly subscription. This means that any user can increase their authority as long as they have money. Previously, the system was limited to high-profile users, news sources and journalists.
On Saturday, a fake document purporting to show a White House order to send $8bn (£6.5bn) in aid to Israel quickly spread across blue tick accounts.
Professor Sander van der Linden, director of the Social Decision Making Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, says Twitter's crowdsourcing feature «cannot match the deluge of misinformation they are facing.» He claims the cuts mean the platform has «limited its capabilities under the banner of 'unmoderated free speech'.» Musk has cut Twitter's workforce by more than 80% since taking over last November.
In a Twitter post, the company's security team said it had «taken action on tens of thousands of posts» and «taken actions to remove several hundred messages.” accounts are trying to manipulate trending topics.”
Over the past couple of days, we have seen an increase in daily active @X users in the conflict zone, as well as over 50 million posts worldwide regarding the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel over the weekend.
< br>As events continue to unfold fast, intercompany…
— Security (@Safety) October 10, 2023
The fake news problem is not unique to Twitter. On TikTok, thanks to a quick search, videos falsely showing a mass landing by Hamas paratroopers were widely available. Some of them were first published a week before the first attacks on Saturday and reflected events in Egypt.
TikTok added a label to the video that simply said: “The actions in this video were performed by professionals.” After The Telegraph flagged one such video, it was removed.
While many false claims are spread unintentionally, there are concerns that efforts to spread fake news may be coordinated by malicious actors.
Rafi Mendelsohn of the Israeli social media monitoring company Cyabra estimates that about a fifth of accounts that comment, like or share posts about the conflict may be fake across all social networks.
Some accounts have remained dormant for a period years before the conflict was posted thousands of times in a matter of days.
Speaking from his home in Israel, with rocket fire heard in the distance, Mendelsohn says: “The scale of what we are seeing is akin to a relief campaign. influence on government entities.”
While such manipulations can be sophisticated, fake accounts are a known problem that social media companies have struggled to combat.
Syabra previously helped Musk analyze the level of fake accounts on Twitter before he came to power. But Mendelsohn notes: “The level of fake profiles on Twitter is essentially the same as before.”
Michelle Donelan The Technology Minister met with representatives from Meta, Google, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok, demanding they step up efforts to remove posts glorifying Hamas. Photo: Adam Vaughn/Shutterstock
Musk's personal judgment on fake news is also being questioned. The billionaire advised users to follow two anonymous accounts, which were later accused of spreading disinformation and, in one case, anti-Semitic material. He later deleted the tweet.
A German government organization set up to combat hate speech said on Wednesday it would shut down Musk's app to protest a rise in discriminatory posts. The federal anti-discrimination agency said: «In our opinion, X is no longer an acceptable environment.»
Musk risks falling out with the EU if he fails to get the problem under control under sweeping new technology laws introduced by the bloc. Britain will soon have new internet safety laws that could also impose fines for harmful content.
Damian Collins, Conservative MP and former digital secretary, says social media companies could be punished if they will not be able to eliminate illegal disinformation. for example, state-sponsored fake news networks.
He says: «Ofcom will have regulatory powers to take action against them and impose large fines.» Failure to stop illegal disinformation that could incite violence or glorify terror could also result in fines once the laws come into force.
A government spokesman said the Internet Safety Bill would «force all companies to crack down on any illegal disinformation» and misinformation if they become aware of it on their services.”
They said: “Major online platforms will also be legally required to remove misinformation and disinformation where their terms of service prohibit it.”
Amid the confusion, Musk simply resorted to calling on his followers to try to stick to verified information. «As always, please try [to be] as close to the truth as possible,» he said Saturday.
Many users are finding it harder than ever to get a sense of reality when scrolling on Twitter. . Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative news site Bellingcat, said in a social media post: «Musk has created a fundamental problem with Twitter's credibility in moments of crisis.»
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