Tech-fuelled misinformation distorts Iran-Israel fighting

AI DEEPFAKES, video game footage passed off as real combat, and chatbot-generated falsehoods — such tech-enabled misinformation — is distorting the Israel-Iran conflict, fuelling a war of narratives across social media.

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The information warfare that unfolded alongside ground combat sparked by Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military leadership - underscores a digital crisis in the age of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI tools) that have blurred the lines between truth and fabrication.

The surge in wartime misinformation has exposed an urgent need for stronger detection tools, experts say, as major tech platforms have largely weakened safeguards by scaling back content moderation and reducing reliance on human fact-checkers.

After Iran struck Israel with barrages of missiles last week, AI-generated videos falsely claimed to show damage inflicted on Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport. The videos were widely shared across Facebook, Instagram and X.

Using a reverse image search, AFP's fact-checkers found that the clips were originally posted by a TikTok account that produces AI-generated content.