Israel-Hamas conflict was a test for Elon Musk’s X, and it failed

Posts about the attack in Israel have led to confusion, misinformation and conflict on Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, exposing how his acquisition and policy changes have transformed the social media site into an unreliable resource during a time of crisis, researchers said.

Hours after Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip surged into Israel, carrying out the most significant attack of the country in decades, unverified photos and videos of missile air strikes, buildings and homes being destroyed and other posts depicting military violence — in Israel and Gaza — swirled on the platform. Many of the posts repurposed old images of armed conflict, passing them off as new, and were pushed by anonymous accounts that carried blue checkmarks — signaling that they had purchased verification under X’s “premium” subscription service, formerly known as Twitter Blue. Other accounts posted military footage that actually originated from video games. And a handful of viral falsehoods were pushed by far-right pundits on the platform, a common tactic for increasing engagement.