Manipulation and Disinformation in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

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This chapter discusses the manipulation of information and spread of disinformation during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, focusing on the tactics used by Israeli authorities. It highlights incidents where misinformation was spread about the murder of a journalist and the bombing of a hospital, as well as the challenges of obtaining accurate information in Gaza. The chapter also raises concerns about the role of Western media in amplifying unverified claims and calls for an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Paris Marx is joined by Marwa Fatafta to discuss the ongoing Israeli campaign in Gaza, the importance of social media for sharing what’s happening on the ground, and what listeners can do to support peace and Palestinian rights.

Marwa Fatafta is a Palestinian digital rights advocate and researcher. She is Access Now’s Policy and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.

Also mentioned in this episode:

1 in 200 people in Gaza have been killed. >4,600 of the 11,100 dead are children.
An Israeli government minster called their actions the “Gaza Nakba.”
Instagram inserted “terrorist” into translations of Palestinian bios and removed hospital bombing photos for nudity. Whatsapp generated stickers of gun-wielding children for Palestinian terms.
Facebook’s terrorism algorithms removed non-violent Arabic content 77% of the time.
7amleh tracked hate speech in Hebrew on social media. WSJ reported Meta’s Hebrew hate speech classifier doesn’t actually work.
FAIR detailed Western media bias in reporting on Israel-Palestine.
Access Now published a report on the internet shutdowns happening in Gaza.
CNN and other Western outlets allow the Israeli army to review their Gaza footage.
Al Jazeera, Channel 4, NYT, and WaPo found holes in Israel’s hospital explosion story about.
Israel has been actively creating and spreading disinformation.
The Israeli parliament passed a bill criminalizing the “consumption of terrorist materials” as dozens are arrested for social media posts.