Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
A black-clad Hamas fighter raises a hand-held rocket launcher to his shoulders and fires. Seconds later, an Israeli Apache attack helicopter explodes in a ball of flames.
It's an astonishing clip that shows the fury and intensity of conflict over the Gaza Strip that had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media.
Except it doesn't.
Despite the claims made for its authenticity, the scene is actually taken from a video game, Arma 3, which creates simulated battle scenes with surprising accuracy.
The conflict raging between Israel and Hamas has produced a flood of misinformation on social media, much of it on X, formerly known as Twitter, which this week was labelled a “fog of war machine” by the magazine Slate.
A distorted narrative
Hundreds of posts seen by millions of users have created a distorted narrative of what is really happening on the ground. They have not just deceived gullible teenagers glued to their phones, but world leaders too.
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden declared that “I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.”
Despite rumours, the president had seen no such thing. He was reacting to unverified reports that Hamas had beheaded children in its assault on an Israeli kibbutz.
Some of this genuinely fake news might seem almost comical were it not for the power of platforms like X, TikTok and YouTube shaping opinions around the world.
A video on Facebook and X does not show Irish football fans waving Palestinian flags but are supporters of two Moroccan teams.
Another clip on X allegedly of Hamas capturing Israeli generals actually shows the arrest of Nagorno-Karabakh separatist leaders by Azerbaijan's security service.
A photograph of an aircraft filled with Israeli men flying home to enlist in the military is a fake generated by AI – a clue being passengers' hands with six fingers.
Another clip of a Hamas hang-glider killed after crashing into power lines and posted to Reddit is in fact a tragic accident in China first shown on YouTube three months ago. The post was later deleted by the user after fellow Reddit users said it was inaccurate.
Footage on TikTok of buildings in Gaza surrounded by smoke and red flames is actually football fans in Algiers celebrating a win with flares and fireworks.
A video posted by a Malaysian right-wing influencer, Ian Miles Cheong, and viewed over 12 million times, claimed to show Hamas going door-to-door hunting down Israelis. “Imagine if this was happening in your neighbourhood, to your family,” he wrote. It is actually footage of Israeli police conducting a raid on a house.
Other examples seem more sinister.
Sinister posts
A video, seen over a million times, claims to show Gazans faking deaths caused by Israel, when a person lying on the ground suddenly comes back to life and runs away. It is actually a video satirising Covid restrictions shot in Jordan.
A video posted on X, accompanied by a broken heart emoji, is not a kidnapped Israeli child with her Hamas abductor, but a family filmed at a military academy in Egypt in September.
Other posts mimic genuine media outlets or repost genuine footage from Gaza, but from earlier conflicts months or even years ago.
An account on X posted misinformation from a supposed BBC reporter called Verona Mark, who does not exist.
While it has since been suspended, it fooled British politician Chris Clarkson – a Conservative Member of Parliament – who launched a blistering attack on the broadcaster.
Outlets as diverse as Al Jazeera and the Jerusalem Post have also suffered from fake accounts, including claims that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been taken to hospital.
Despite its low user numbers for a social media platform, X is often the first port of call for misinformation.
Since Elon Musk took over, dozens of content moderators have been laid off. A verified user “blue tick” can now be bought for a $8 monthly subscription via Twitter Blue.
Musk says he is committed to free speech and that “our policy is that everything is open source and transparent.”
However, Slate says that X is now “a degraded site that can't be trusted for sensitive breaking news”.
Debunking false claims
The BBC now has an entire department called Verify to fact-check news. In the days following the first Hamas attack and Israeli's response, monitoring social media about the conflict has become a full time job.
Ironically, much of this monitoring happens on X, where BBC Verify staff member Shayan Sardarizadeh has debunked a host of false claims and reports that have been seen by millions.
These include a photo that wrongly claimed Netanyahu was sending his son to fight in Gaza and a video claiming to show Israel's use of white phosphorus which was actually a Russian attack on Ukraine in March.
The motives of those posting misinformation are varied.
They may be trolls acting on behalf of state actors like Iran, or simply supporters of the various waring sides making trouble. Many simply post what gets the most likes to raise their profile.
Most are eventually debunked on the platforms they appear, but not before they have been seen by millions in their original state.
The BBC's Sardairzadeh writes that “the main challenge remaining for X is addressing the issue of Twitter Blue accounts, whose false posts are not only boosted by the algorithm in feeds, but also monetised.”
The awful truth is what is really happening in Gaza and Israel is far more horrifying than the false claims on social media.
As Sardarizadeh says: “War is not a game for retweets and likes on social media.”
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Top New Zealand cop on policing the virtual world
New Zealand police began closer scrutiny of social media and online communities after the attacks on two mosques in March, the country's top officer said.
The killing of 51 people in Christchurch and wounding of more than 40 others shocked the world. Brenton Tarrant, a suspected white supremacist, was accused of the killings. His trial is ongoing and he denies the charges.
Mike Bush, commissioner of New Zealand Police, said officers looked closely at how they monitored social media in the wake of the tragedy to see if lessons could be learned.
“We decided that it was fit for purpose but we need to deepen it in terms of community relationships, extending them not only with the traditional community but the virtual one as well," he told The National.
"We want to get ahead of attacks like we suffered in New Zealand so we have to challenge ourselves to be better."
More coverage from the Future Forum
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If you go
The flights
Emirates (www.emirates.com) and Etihad (www.etihad.com) both fly direct to Bengaluru, with return fares from Dh 1240. From Bengaluru airport, Coorg is a five-hour drive by car.
The hotels
The Tamara (www.thetamara.com) is located inside a working coffee plantation and offers individual villas with sprawling views of the hills (tariff from Dh1,300, including taxes and breakfast).
When to go
Coorg is an all-year destination, with the peak season for travel extending from the cooler months between October and March.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
More from UAE Human Development Report:
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
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Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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