What connects these social media phenomena?

• A post falsely suggesting that images of parents mourning their babies were of actors with dolls.
• A clip said to be of a Palestinian nurse in a Gaza hospital, saying that Hamas had a base there and she sympathised with Israel.
• A clip showing a car doing doughnuts in a US street, the passengers waving what were described as Palestinian flags (there was actually a flag of Cuba).
• A claim that pro-Palestinian activists planted material on a Canadian university campus to increase anti-Semitic feeling.

They’re all examples of dis-influencer activity, according to Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor in Middle Eastern Studies.

Dis-influencers are people who try to influence others with disinformation – information that they know is false but deliberately present to others as factual in order to mislead.

The Israeli government and its cheerleaders are heavily involved in dis-influencer activity, it seems – as explained in the following video interview with the UK journalist, also called Owen Jones:

This Writer reckons Marc Owen Jones makes a good point.

The ‘doll’ story was picked up and published as factual by the Jerusalem Post, which subsequently published this retraction:

… as spotted by Marc Owen Jones:

Look at the comments by the reporter, quoted below. Totally unrepentant. I wonder whether this person has changed their tune now:

The claim in the video was that we can’t tell who starts these falsehoods because they are picked up and spread by so many mouthpieces. This seems to be borne out by the following:

https://twitter.com/ShukiFriedman/status/1730547633108770948

I’m sure you get the point.

The argument put forward by Marc Owen Jones – and Owen Jones – is persuasive.

So next time you see someone making bold claims about the depravity of Palestinians, Gazans, and/or Hamas… don’t be too quick to believe it. And see if it isn’t debunked within days – or even hours.

*For clarity, I’m aware that a fifth column is actually “a group within a country at war who are sympathetic to or working for its enemies”, but it seems the closest description of what these people are. Is there a word for a group within one country who spread lies in order to further another country’s interests?

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