NewsGuard: Twitter/X Made Money Off Israel-Hamas War Misinfo

NewsGuard on Wednesday afternoon dropped a report that found that 200 advertisements on the platform formerly known as Twitter from 86 prominent brands, governments, non-profits, and educational institutions showed up on feeds next to viral posts spouting misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war. Analysts studied 30 posts with a combined 92 million views by ten previously identified “repeated spreaders of misinformation about the conflict.” Some of the claims include that the Oct. 7 Hamas attack was a “false flag” and that CNN had manufactured footage of a rocket attack on a news crew in Israel. On Nov. 21, following NewsGuard contacting X about the report, Musk posted that X Corp would donate “all revenue from advertising & subscriptions associated with the war in Gaza to hospitals in Israel and the Red Cross/Crescent.” NewsGuard questioned X about Musk’s reference to the revenue streams and the misinformation accounts that made money off the advertisements but received an automated reply. This comes after the safety account for X posted early Wednesday afternoon, warning about an upcoming “report” by the rating system NewGuard. X launched an immediate counteroffensive that claimed NewsGuard “pressure[s] companies to buy their ‘fact-checking’ services” in a “profit over any principle model.” According to NewsGuard’s About page, analysts use artificial intelligence to “operate the trust industry’s most accountable and largest dataset on news.” NewsGuard also describes its rating process as based on nine “apolitical” criteria, including whether the site repeatedly publishes false or misleading content and whether it references multiple sources.