It is known that during any conflict, social media gets flooded with images and videos claiming to be from the war zone, shaping a narrative for people relying on the internet to understand what is happening in the world. As the war between the United States, Israel and Iran enter Day 5, X revealed that it had found a man from Pakistan who had hacked as many as 31 accounts to post recycled images and videos, passing them off as those from the war.
Since US and Israeli strikes over the weekend ignited a regional conflict, a parallel information war has erupted, with supporters on both sides flooding social media with falsehoods that often spread faster than the facts on the ground.
Nikita Bier, head of product at X, recently said that the social media platform detected a user fro Pakistan running a coordinated network of accounts that spread AI-generated war videos. Also Read | Missiles, airspace closures and oil shock: How US-Iran war is unfolding across the Middle East — A country-wise breakdown
He said, “Last night, we found a guy in Pakistan that was managing 31 accounts posting AI war videos. All were hacked and the usernames were changed on Feb 27 to “Iran War Monitor” or some derivative.”
Nikita Bier further said that the platform was also improving at detecting these activities quickly and reducing the motivation behind them.
Not just a Pakistan man, he had recently shared that the social media site successfully blocked a wave of Iranian bots.
Since the day Iran was attacked by the joint forces of the United States and Israel with Tehran counterattacking their bases in other Middle East countries, social media has been flooded with a flurry of AI-generated content, exaggerating the damage in Tehran.
AFP’s fact-checkers, too, have debunked a series of claims by pro-Iranian accounts posting old videos to pass them off as Tehran’s missile strikes on Israel and Gulf states including the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Also Read | Iranian warship sinks off Sri Lanka coast, 32 saved, many bodies recovered
“There is definitely a narrative war unfolding online,” Moustafa Ayad, from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), told AFP, adding, “Whether it was to rationalize the strikes across the Gulf, or to trumpet Iranian military might in the face of the Israeli and US strikes, the goals seem to be wear down ‘enemies.’”
Not just pro-Iran accounts, Iranian opposition outlets, too, have pushed false narratives on X and Telegram blaming a missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school on the Iranian government itself, researchers said.
Similar disinformation tactics have also been reported in other global conflicts including Ukraine and Gaza.
