During any conflict, social media is known to be flooded with images and videos claiming to be from a war zone, creating a narrative for people who rely on the internet to understand what is happening in the world. As the war between the United States, Israel and Iran enters its 5th day, X has revealed that it has found a man from Pakistan who hacked up to 31 accounts to post recycled images and videos, posing as those from the war.
Since US and Israeli strikes ignited the regional conflict over the weekend, 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 the social media platform had uncovered a user from Pakistan running a coordinated network of accounts that spread AI-generated war videos. Also read | Missiles, Airspace Closures and Oil Shock: How the US-Iran War Is Evolving in the Middle East – Country-by-Country Breakdown
He said: “Last night we found a guy in Pakistan who managed 31 accounts posting AI war videos. They were all hacked and the usernames were changed to ‘Iran War Monitor’ or some derivative on February 27th.”
Nikita Bier further stated that the platform is also getting better at quickly detecting these activities and reducing the motivation behind them.
Not just a Pakistani, he recently shared that a social media site has successfully blocked a wave of Iranian bots.
Since the day Iran was attacked by joint forces of the United States and Israel with Tehran counter-attacking its bases in other Middle Eastern countries, social media has been flooded with a flood of AI-generated content exaggerating the damage in Tehran.
AFP fact-checkers also debunked a number of claims by pro-Iran accounts that posted old videos to pose as Tehran’s missile attacks on Israel and Gulf states including the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Also read | Iran warship sinks off Sri Lanka coast, 32 rescued, many bodies found
“There is definitely a narrative war going on online,” Moustafa Ayad of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) told AFP, adding: “Whether it was rationalizing strikes across the Gulf or trumpeting Iran’s military might in the face of Israeli and US strikes, the goals seem to be weakening the ‘enemy’.”
Not only pro-Iranian accounts, but also Iranian opposition outlets pushed false narratives on X and Telegram that blamed the Iranian government itself for the rocket attack on an Iranian girls’ school, the researchers said.
Similar disinformation tactics have also been reported in other global conflicts, including Ukraine and Gaza.
