A Coordinated Propaganda Campaign on X Is Spreading Disinformation About the Israel-Hamas War, NBC Uncovers 67 Accounts

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NBC News uncovered 67 active accounts on Twitter/X that have been posting false information about the conflict in Israel, and researchers believe they are part of a coordinated campaign.

Research conducted by Althea, a company that specializes in disinformation on social media, revealed that 67 accounts used similar messaging and verbiage related to the Israeli-Hamas war. Before the terrorist attacks committed by Hamas on October 7, the content posted was “innocuous” and didn’t appear to be connected. But immediately following the attacks, a pattern was uncovered:

In addition to generally inflammatory content around the conflict, most of the accounts posted at least one of two misleading videos. Both of the videos take footage of Russian government officials speaking in Russian and overlay inaccurate English subtitles to falsely indicate that the officials said they wanted to escalate military conflict in Israel.

Many of the videos that have gone viral have been debunked, including one pro-Palestine video that was found to have been footage from a video game. The spread of videos like this from just those 67 accounts may mean that millions of users have been exposed to false or unreliable information.

NBC stated that Althea would not attribute the campaign to a specific group or organization, nor to any country or intelligence agency. It’s also unclear if these accounts were hacked or bought by the parties responsible. NBC News also reached out to Twitter/X and received an automated message (“Busy now, please check back later”), but no response to the discovery of the propaganda campaign.

Since Elon Musk bought the company and slashed its staff, including those whose job it was to moderate disinformation, unreliable content — as well as hate speech — has flourished. Despite a promise posted on Monday from the company’s safety team to “protect the conversation” on the platform, unregulated content such as AI-produced imagery, antisemitic rhetoric, and misleading claims have spiked since the Hamas terrorist attacks. On Tuesday, the European Union gave Musk an ultimatum: Prove your company is doing something to stop the spread of disinformation in 24 hours or “penalties can be imposed.”