Misinformation surrounding the Iranian attack on Israel and the new escalation of tension in the Middle East has been invading social media since Saturday night. No need for a long time Manuscripts The average user sees videos of missile launches, explosions, and people seemingly fleeing attacks. However, not all pictures are as they seem.
As conflict-related content has increased on social media, manipulated videos and images taken out of context have also been posted en masse.
This Sunday, for example, user X (formerly Twitter, as he's now called) posted a video in which you can see what appears to be several missiles fired. In the description, the author of the post – which has already received more than 26,000 views – wrote: “Iranian TV broadcast this video of the attack on Israel last night.” But in the comments section, there is a profile that says that the video was published in 2015, and has nothing to do with the current conflict.
After some were arrested tires Video and implementation a Reverse image search (“Reverse Image Search,” in a free translation), PÚBLICO has confirmed that the video is older than one would like to believe. A videotape was found in Facebook, longer than the X containing the above images. Posted on July 15, 2022.
This is by no means the only situation where a video is posted out of context, with a misleading description. This Monday morning, more than two thousand people watched another very similar video, posted on X. “The Latest: Iran launches missiles and Drones To Israel,” reads the accompanying description the pictures.
It turns out that the video was recorded at least six months ago. On October 9, it was posted by another X account on the platform, but with a description indicating that they were “Missiles agitation” It was launched towards an Israeli airport.
In other cases, the published content, despite the misleading text that accompanies it, was not even registered in the Middle East. This is the case of the video showing a fire, which appears accompanied by text claiming that “the UN condemns the Iranian attack on Israel” and did not “strongly condemn the attack on the Israeli population in Gaza.”
Here, the video has nothing to do with the description, and it doesn't appear to have been recorded on the same continent, not even. On February 3, p Disaster tracking He shared an almost identical video, suggesting it was recorded the day before. The fireworks photos appear to have been taken near Villa Alemana, in the Valparaiso region, in Chile. An Ecuadorian newspaper used an image from the same video in a story published on February 2 about the fires.
It has also been traded through X Pictures of a crowd of people Who appears to be on the run after the Iranian attack.
There are users of the platform who deny that the video was recorded in Israel, saying that the images show an area in Buenos Aires, close to the Four Seasons Hotel. People who run will not run, according to Community Feedback. They will be fans of singer Louis Tomlinson, the former One Direction member.
PÚBLICO verified, using the hotel address and Google Maps, through the locations of buildings, pedestrian crossings and traffic lights, that the images were indeed collected in Argentina, near the hotel. However, it was not possible to verify the mode in which the video was taken.