A gruesome video of a man beheading a child went viral on social media last week — initially shared by a premium or verified Twitter account as evidence of Hamas’ attack on Israel. The video was viewed by millions online, and shared with hashtags #IslamIsTheProblem and #IsraelUnderAttack.
But was it a video of the escalated Israel-Palestine conflict? Fact-checkers found that the clip was unrelated to Israel or Palestinian militant group Hamas, and was instead shot in Syria in 2016. The false claims were quickly debunked by fact-checkers using multiple technological tools — but the damage had already been done.
