Immediately following the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, and throughout Israel’s bombing of Gaza thereafter, platforms such as Facebook, X, and YouTube have played host to a seemingly relentless flood of misinformation and disinformation—as if the true images emerging from the conflict zone are not horrifying enough. The posts and videos circulating on social media have ranged from the grotesque (kidnappings and beheadings) to the malevolent (claims of a US government psy-op, or that Ukraine supplied weapons to Hamas). One video was even promoted as footage of the Israeli military creating staged clips of fake deaths. (Turns out that was a behind-the-scenes shot from a short film. It racked up millions of views anyway.)
How have these platforms, once invaluable resources for following world events in real time, become such a mess? Taylor Owen is the Beaverbrook chair in media, ethics, and communications and the founding director of the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy at McGill University. We spoke with him about the sources of disinformation, the changing role of social media, and where our information ecosystem goes from here.
