Getty Images | Nathan Stirk
“Verified” accounts on Elon Musk’s X platform spread nearly three-quarters of the 250 most viral posts containing commonly shared misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war, according to a study released yesterday by NewsGuard, a company that has worked with the European Commission on misinformation initiatives.
After buying Twitter nearly a year ago, Musk overhauled the system for doling out blue checkmarks so that anyone who pays $8 a month can be “verified.” Accounts verified as being notable and authentic under the pre-Musk system had their checkmarks removed.
“A NewsGuard analysis found that ‘verified’ accounts on X are superspreaders of misinformation about the conflict, boosting falsehoods while displaying a ‘verification’ blue checkmark that verifies nothing,” the report said.
NewsGuard described its research as follows:
During the first week of the conflict (Oct. 7-Oct. 14), NewsGuard analyzed the 250 most-engaged posts (likes, reposts, replies, and bookmarks) that promoted one of 10 prominent false or unsubstantiated narratives relating to the war, derived from NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprints, its proprietary database of prominent false narratives. The results revealed that 186 out of these 250 posts—74 percent—were posted by accounts verified by X.
NewsGuard said the 10 false or unsubstantiated claims spread by these accounts are that “Ukraine sold weapons to Hamas,” that “Israel has killed 33,000 Palestinian children since 2008,” that “a video shows Israeli or Palestinian children in cages,” that “a video shows Israeli senior officials captured by Hamas,” that “the Saint Porphyrios Orthodox Church in Gaza was destroyed by Israeli bombing,” that “a video shows Hamas fighters celebrating the abduction of an Israeli toddler,” that “CNN staged footage of its news crew under attack in Israel,” that “a White House memo shows that the US approved $8 billion in aid for Israel,” that “Israel staged footage showing the death of a child killed by a Hamas strike,” and that “the Hamas terrorist attack was a ‘false flag’ carried out by Israel or the West.”
“Collectively, posts advancing these myths received 1,349,979 engagements and were cumulatively viewed more than 100 million times globally in just one week,” the report said.
Musk calls group an Orwellian scam
Musk railed against NewsGuard in a few posts yesterday, calling it a “scam” that “should be disbanded immediately.”
“Anything with a name that sounds like it came out of an Orwell novel should never be trusted,” Musk wrote on X, the current name for the platform that is still accessed at twitter.com.
NewsGuard worked with the European Commission on the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation, a voluntary system that Twitter joined before Musk bought the company. Musk pulled his platform out of the disinformation pact in May 2023. A Code of Practice study conducted for the EU by analytics firm TrustLab found that disinformation is more prevalent on X than on Facebook and other social networks.
NewsGuard, founded in 2018, is also providing data on misinformation to Europe’s Joint Research Centre.
European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton warned Musk last week that X faces penalties under the new Digital Services Act if it doesn’t take action to stop the spread of Israel/Hamas disinformation. The EC is investigating X’s compliance with the new law and sent similar requests for information to Meta and TikTok.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino’s response to Breton said the platform removed or labeled “tens of thousands of pieces of content” and that Community Notes providing additional context “are visible on thousands of posts, generating millions of impressions.”
