A wave of disinformation has been unleashed online since Israel began strikes on Iran last week, with dozens of posts reviewed by the BBC seeking to amplify the effectiveness of Tehran's response.
| Our analysis found a number of videos - created using artificial intelligence - boasting of Iran's military capabilities, alongside fake clips showing the aftermath of strikes on Israeli targets. The three most viewed fake videos BBC found have collectively amassed over 100 million views across multiple platforms. Pro-Israeli accounts have also shared disinformation online, mainly by recirculating old clips of protests and gatherings in Iran, falsely claiming that they show mounting dissent against the government and support among Iranians for Israel's military campaign. Israel launched strikes in Iran on 13 June, leading to several rounds of Iranian missile and drone attacks on Israel. One organisation that analyses open-source imagery described the volume of disinformation online as "astonishing" and accused some "engagement farmers" of seeking to profit from the conflict by sharing misleading content designed to attract attention online. "We are seeing everything from unrelated footage from Pakistan, to recycled videos from the October 2024 strikes—some of which have amassed over 20 million views—as well as game clips and AI-generated content being passed off as real events," Geoconfirmed, the online verification group, wrote on X. Certain accounts have become "super-spreaders" of disinformation, being rewarded with significant growth in their follower count. One pro-Iranian account with no obvious ties to authorities in Tehran - Daily Iran Military - has seen its followers on X grow from just over 700,000 on 13 June to 1.4m by 19 June, a 100% increase in under a week. It is one of many obscure accounts that have appeared in people's feeds recently. All have blue ticks, are prolific in messaging and have repeatedly posted disinformation. Because some use seemingly official names, some people have assumed they are authentic accounts, but it is unclear who is actually running the profiles. The torrent of disinformation marked "the first time we've seen generative AI be used at scale during a conflict," Emmanuelle Saliba, Chief Investigative Officer with the analyst group Get Real, said. Accounts reviewed by BBC frequently shared AI-generated images that appear to be seeking to exaggerate the success of Iran's response to Israel's strikes. One image, which has 27m views, depicted dozens of missiles falling on the city of Tel Aviv. Source: BBC |