The current Gaza-Israel War started with an armed infiltration of Hamas terrorists, under the cover of “regular” rocket attacks, in which some 4,000 rockets were launched against Israeli populated areas. The terrorists, the approximate number of which stands at more than 1,500, murder, within a few hours, more than 1,300 innocent civilians, including whole families.
This newsletter deals with an entirely different threat: foreign hostile entities who may systematically spread false information across social media to create panic or undermine the trust of Israeli citizens in the government and the military. The spike in fake news and disinformation has become a natural phenomenon amid times of crises and uncertainty due to heightened emotions such as fear and anger, and local political interests. However, foreign actors such as nation states and non-state actors have been exploiting these kind of situations and have been using information warfare to promote their national or geo-political interests and gain strategic advantages.
Since the attack on October 7, a variety of actors, using both authenticated and fake social media accounts, have been disseminating a significant amount of disinformation, fake, violent and inciting content. These actors include pro-Palestinian users from Muslim but also European countries, as well as members or supporters of Hamas, Hezboullah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and others.
Due to the close relationship between Iran and Hamas, and the former’s sponsorship of the latter, there also seems to be an active Iranian involvement in the current disinformation campaign, portrayed by the coordination and the dissemination of false and distorted narratives. Of note, this is not the first time Iran has initiated information warfare against Israel on social media networks.
Creating panic and decreasing the Israeli public’s morale
Fake narratives that have been disseminated since the attack include a conspiracy that accuses insiders from within the Israeli security and intelligence agencies in treachery for allowing the attack to take place. According to the Israeli startup CHEQ, which detects fake accounts and bots on social media networks, this conspiracy was amplified by bots operated by Iranian actors, as well as by members of Hamas, Hezboullah and the Islamic Jihad.
In addition, fake recordings and voice messages were spread and shared through Whatsapp groups claiming that a high-ranking officer in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) recommended Israeli civilians to store groceries, cash and fuel, causing mass-buying and shortages in essential products.
Shaping and affecting international public opinion
Other narratives and messages targeted international public opinion or local public opinion in key countries, such as the U.S. Social media posts attempted to improve Hamas’ international reputation, for example, by showing an Israeli woman who was kidnapped with her children while Hamas terrorists are shown saying that they will not harm her. Other videos, posted on X (formerly Twitter), showed Hamas terrorists with kidnapped children, portraying them as ‘taking care’ of Israeli babies.
False information was also disseminated in an apparent attempt to curb U.S. support for Israel. A forged White House press release, shared on the X platform, falsely claimed that the Biden Administration authorized $8 billion in emergency aid to Israel. The faked document, which seemed to be an edited version of President Biden’s July memo announcing $400 million in aid to Ukraine, fooled several online publications into writing full articles about the fake news.
The use of AI for information warfare
First to be seen during the war in Ukraine, researchers identified at least one example of AI-faked media, or DeepFake, which attempted to create fear for Israeli civilians. Unidentified hackers who breached an Israeli woman’s Whatsapp account, uploaded a fake recording of her screaming ‘kidnappers’ on one of her Whatsapp groups, setting panic among its members due to fears of terrorist infiltration into the city. According to the Israeli startup Clarity, that specializes in identifying DeepFake media, the recording of the woman, an actress whose voice recordings could have been found easily on the internet, was created using AI.
AI has also been used as an argument in an online discourse aimed at dismissing evidence from the October 7 massacre as AI-generated. Not long after a picture of a burnt Israeli baby started circulating social media platforms, users shared unverified claims that the picture was fake alongside a screenshot from an online AI scanning engine, allegedly showing the picture classified as AI-generated. Pro-Israel users have shared screenshots from the same engine, showing that the picture was authentic, putting the tool’s reliability in question.
Countermeasures and mitigation against disinformation during wartime
For successful counteraction during wartime, Israel must take three essential steps:
1. Increase cooperation with social media companies: Israel needs to collaborate closely with social media companies, especially X, which has been the main arena for hostile pro-Hamas and anti-Israeli activity. Cooperation is crucial for detecting and removing inauthentic accounts and inciting or terrorist content. In its previous incarnation as Twitter, X has been the primary platform for hostile anti-Israeli information warfare coordinated by Iranian actors. During the Israeli internal political crisis, the Israeli Central Election Commission faced challenges collaborating with Twitter to safeguard Israel's election campaigns from adverse operations.
2. Educate the public: Israeli authorities should inform the public about the characteristics of potential influence operations and share best practices for debunking false content. A 2022 study showed that controlled exposure to bogus information enhances people’s ability to discern between invalid and reliable content.
3. Establish a network of organizations: Israel can establish a network of governmental and non-governmental organizations dedicated to identifying and refuting misleading information before it spreads widely. Similar cooperation in Taiwan against Chinese influence operations has positioned the island state as a world leader in combating information warfare activities.
Conclusion
Similar to other conflicts in recent years, the Israel-Gaza war is a fertile ground for disinformation and information warfare campaigns, aimed at creating fear and panic and manipulating the Israeli public, as well as to affect international public opinion. As many of the techniques used were known from previous campaigns in the last several years, new tactics, such as the use of AI are emerging and its use is expected to expand. The Israeli public should be aware of the various tactics and techniques to spread disinformation and the ways to fact-check and debunk it.
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