Israeli Retaliatory Attacks Against Iran: Between A Viral Deception And A Failure

Information warfare is a constant on the internet, and social media flares up whenever politics are involved.

And in times of conflict, especially during war, this can reach new heights.

Propaganda remains one of the most effective forms of disinformation circulating online. After Hamas's surprise attack on Israel and as the war intensified for Palestine, Iran’s stance and its retaliatory strike fueled Benjamin Netanyahu's anger, sparking promises of vengeance.

Now, as Israel finally launches further and major attacks on Iran, the information circulating on social media has become increasingly complex and clouded in uncertainty.

It all began when the Israeli military announced that its forces had carried out a targeted airstrike on Iran’s military facilities, and confirmed the completion of its retaliatory attack against Iran.

Tel Aviv claims that the strike successfully hit missile manufacturing facilities, believed to be producing the missiles previously launched at Israel in Iran’s attacks on April 14 and October 1.

In its attack, Israel also targeted Iran's surface-to-air missile systems and other aerial assets that had been obstructing Israel's operational capabilities in Iranian airspace.

"The operation was successfully conducted, and all aircraft safely returned to base," stated the Israeli military.

"The retaliatory strike is complete, and the mission has been fulfilled," added the military in its statement.

According to the Israeli military, dozens of Israeli Air Force aircraft, including fighter jets, refueling planes, and reconnaissance planes, participated in the strike in an area approximately 1,600 kilometers from Israeli territory.

The operation has been named “Day of Atonement.”

As concerns grew in the international community that Iran’s attacks could escalate Israel’s conflict in Gaza into a broader regional crisis, leading to further scrutiny of online content about the incident, the internet already interpreted Israeli's attack as an attack much bigger than it is.

This is because news from Iran, said that the attacks have been intercepted by the Iranian air defense missiles.

According to reports, many of the missiles have been intercepted by the Iranian Bavar-373 and S400/S300 Air Defense Units.

Social media posts show fire and debris on the outskirt of Tehran and in other regions, like Khuzestan, Ilam, and Shiraz.

Due to the fact that the Israeli side controls pretty much all of Western media, and that because not much from Iran can be heard.

So what happens here is that, Israel, and whoever sides with it, have been spreading disinformation.

In other words, they're either covering their failure by spreading fake news, or use the deception to spread their propaganda agenda.

Soon after Iran's launch of over 300 drones and ballistic missiles toward Israel, Iranian state television allegedly broadcasted footage that appeared to depict the aftermath, showing fire against an orange, smoke-filled sky.

And this time, photos of Tehran on fire have gone viral on social media, when in fact the photos are actually taken Beirut.

The photos were originally uploaded on October 22, 2024, when Israel attacked the capital of Lebanon, during its attempt to seek Hezbollah's positions in the port of Beirut.

Then, there are also videos that depict rockets being shot into the night sky, in which the video is actually a video from YouTube uploaded in 2021.

Another post claimed to show the use of the Iron Dome, Israel's missile defense system, during the attack, but the video was actually from October 2023.

Things went viral because many of the accounts posting the misinformation are verified accounts, meaning they are paying users who earned their “blue tick” and that their content is amplified by the platform’s algorithm.

Some of the verified accounts are also claimed to be open source intelligence (OSINT) experts, which has, in more recent years, become another way of lending legitimacy to their posts.

Long story short, following the barrage of Iranian missiles fired at Israel, a barrage of misinformation, disinformation, and also malinformation also flooded social media.

Researchers and fact-checkers, as well as various legitimate news media have confirmed that many of the photos and videos are actually outdated, AI-generated, or sourced from unrelated events like wildfires and video games.

Posts that shared these fake information have collectively garnered millions of views on X (formerly Twitter), according to the researchers.

This phenomenon of misinformation mirrors similar surges of misleading content following significant events, such as Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to ISD’s U.S. Director of Technology and Society, Isabelle Frances-Wright, misinformation thrives in moments of heightened uncertainty, like election days or breaking news events, where people are eager for information but facts may be lacking.

Over 30 misleading or AI-generated images and videos on X were flagged by ISD researchers, amassing over 35 million views in total, although many posts have continued to attract attention despite having been labeled as misleading by X’s community notes.