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The most popular posts on Twitter/X that are pushing misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war are largely coming from verified accounts, according to a new study.
The report comes from NewsGuard, a company that produces tools to identify misinformation. The group looked at 250 of the most popular posts on Twitter that have promoted a prominent falsehood or unsubstantiated claim about the Israel-Hamas war.
“The results revealed that 186 out of these 250 posts—74%—were posted by accounts verified by X,” NewsGuard says.
Misinformation shared by the verified accounts include unsubstantiated or false claims that Ukraine sold weapons to Hamas, that Israel has killed 33,000 Palestinian children since 2008, and that a White House memo shows the US government approved $8 billion in aid to Israel.
"Collectively, posts advancing these myths received 1,349,979 engagements and were cumulatively viewed by more than 100 million times globally in just one week," the report says.
(Credit: NewsGuard)According to NewsGuard, the study underscores how the verified badge on Twitter can now be easily abused to become falsehood “superspreaders." Until recently, Twitter was relatively careful in distributing the verified badge to major celebrities, politicians, activists, experts, and journalists. But following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the platform stripped legacy verified accounts of their blue checkmarks and allowed anyone to purchase one for $8 per month.
In addition, Twitter/X boosts the visibility of users who buy access to the verified badge. The company will also share revenue with verified users when their posts go viral, giving bad actors incentive to share sensational claims in return for clicks.
To stop misinformation, Twitter uses Community Notes, a crowdsourced method to fact-check viral posts. However, NewsGuard says the company fails to consistently apply Community Notes on the top posts containing misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war.
In an example, NewsGuard said: “X attached a Community Note to only one of the top 25 posts advancing the unsubstantiated claim that Israel has killed 33,000 Palestinian children since 2008, and to just four of the top 25 posts promoting the false claim that a White House memo revealed the US was sending $8 billion in military aid to Israel.”
(Credit: NewsGuard)The study from NewsGuard arrives amid mounting criticism that Twitter has become a hotbed for misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war, thanks to the company’s own policies. But for now, Elon Musk is attacking NewsGuard as a scam while his followers are accusing the group of pushing for censorship over free speech.
“Disband Newsguard!” he wrote on Thursday. “Anything with a name that sounds like it came out of an Orwell novel should never be trusted.”