Pay to Play

Blue-checked 'verified' Premium users on X are superspreaders of misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war

-  Jack Brewster

NEARLY THREE-FOURTHS OF THE MOST VIRAL posts on X advancing misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war are being pushed by "verified" X Premium accounts, a NewsGuard analysis has found.

In March 2023, X owner Elon Musk overhauled the platform's verification system, allowing users to pay a fee of $8 a month to become X Premium users. Premium accounts display a blue checkmark on their profile and have their posts prioritized by the algorithm used by X (previously known as Twitter). This means that they appear higher, with greater prominence, in users' replies and search results. That decision turned out to be a boon for bad actors sharing misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war. For less than the cost of a movie ticket, they have gained the added credibility associated with the once-prestigious blue checkmark, enabling them to reach a larger audience.

During the first week of the conflict (October 7 to October 14), NewsGuard analyzed the 250 most-engaged posts (likes, reposts, replies and bookmarks) promoting one of 10 prominent false or unsubstantiated narratives relating to the war, derived from NewsGuard's Misinformation Fingerprints, its proprietary database of prominent false narratives. The results revealed that 186 out of these 250 posts-74 percent were shared by accounts verified by X.

These are the 10 false or unsubstantiated claims identified by NewsGuard shared by these verified accounts:

▸ Ukraine sold weapons to Hamas

▸ Israel has killed 33,000 Palestinian children since 2008

▸ A video shows Israeli or Palestinian children in cages

▸ A video shows Israeli senior officials captured by Hamas

▸ The Saint Porphyrios Orthodox Church in Gaza was destroyed by Israeli bombing

▸ A video shows Hamas fighters celebrating the abduction of an Israeli toddler