‘Barely Seems to Care’: Elon Musk’s Twitter/X Slammed As Israel-Hamas Disinformation, Pro-Hitler Content Goes Viral

Sipa via AP Images

Elon Musk’s ownership and leadership of Twitter, now known as X, has been rife with controversy and continues to draw criticism as his stripped-down content moderation has been accused of aiding the mass disinformation campaigns regarding the Israel-Hamas War.

Eliot Higgins, the founder of investigative journalism website Bellingcat, wrote on Friday, “I have to wonder how pre-Musk Twitter would have dealt with accounts like Jackson Hinkle’s spreading endless disinformation about the current conflict, because post-Musk Twitter barely seems to care.”

Jackson Hinkle has become one of the leading voices spreading misinformation online and has been banned from multiple online platforms. “In the six years since, he has been banned from WhatsApp, YouTube, Paypal, and Twitch for spreading misinformation,” wrote the Jewish Chronicle this week, Hinkle has “become one of the most viral users on X/Twitter.” The Chronicle reported on Hinkle’s posts regarding the conflict, adding:

Hinkle – who describes himself as an “American Conservative Marxist-Leninist”, amongst other things – has taken a strong stance against Israel since the October 7 attacks. His almost 2 million followers are overwhelmed by posts rife with misinformation about the war. Hinkle claimed US Marines have landed in Israel, and misrepresented US airstrikes in Syria earlier this year as “breaking” news of an Israeli attack.

Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist with BBC Verify, flagged the post from Hinkle that Higgins commented on and added:

Jackson Hinkle claims in a tweet with 3.7 million views that “one of Israel’s best snipers Barib Yariel” has been killed by Hamas.

Not only does the image date back to at least 2020, but no-one named Barib Yariel seems to exist.

Sardarizadeh has flagged other tweets from Hinkle spreading false information in recent days:

Sardarizadeh flagged another concerning, viral trend on X/Twitter Friday as well, writing, “The X (Twitter) algorithm is currently boosting this “Hitler was right” tweet by a blue tick account, currently on 712,000 views, in your feeds.”

He added, “The Twitter algorithm is also currently boosting these two posts by the same blue tick account in people’s feeds. One claims the Nazis were “the last warriors who fought the satanic Jewish banking cartel”, and the other is straight up Holocaust denial.”