A year of fact checking the Middle East conflict
Full Fact has published 114 fact checks about the conflict in the Middle East in the last year, with the vast majority relating to misleading images and videos.
Shocking videos of violence in the region regularly circulate on social media, and many of these are sadly real. However, some of the content we’ve seen is miscaptioned and shows conflict elsewhere, is out of date footage of an unrelated event or is even from a video game.
In the past year we have published 85 articles on misleading images and videos relating to the Middle East. Some of the clips we’ve fact checked do originate in the conflict, but not necessarily at the time or location claimed, and some have been reused multiple times to depict different events. For example, a video of a petrol station explosion in Yemen was shared alongside claims it showed Hezbollah bombing Israel only to be recycled days later saying it depicted Iranian strikes on Israel.
Footage relating to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is sometimes shared with claims it depicts events in the Middle East. Videos of separate incidents in other countries such as China or Brazil have also been shared with misleading captions. Some videos aren’t real at all, but blurry clips from the video game Arma 3 or are CGI videos. In fewer cases, the imagery is AI-generated.
We have also fact checked several pieces of content which allege the false staging of harm to Palestinian civilians. This is often referred to as ‘Pallywood’ (a portmanteau of Palestine and Bollywood), and Full Fact has debunked a number of videos and photos that were posted with misleading claims they showed Palestinians pretending to be dead or injured during the conflict.
Additionally we’ve fact checked miscaptioned videos claiming to show panicked Israeli civilians running and screaming during an Iranian airstrike, which actually depicted Louis Tomlinson fans in Argentina, and an old video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu running to vote in parliament recaptioned to suggest he was running to a bunker.
Emotive footage that shocks us, backs up our worldview or generates other strong feelings can be particularly difficult to look at critically. But in times like this it’s extra important to make sure we’re not sharing misinformation.
Our blogs on misleading images and videos provide advice on how to verify content for yourself, including tips on how to find the original versions of content you suspect is misleading using reverse image search. We have also written about how to debunk AI-generated images and videos.