Welcome to the information blender

Seemingly from the first moments that members of Hamas began their attacks over the weekend, murdering and kidnapping hundreds of Israeli civilians, the internet erupted into a state of informational chaos. Different posts and platforms offered competing versions of what was happening on the ground. Horrific images and videos proliferated. Seemingly authoritative sources disagreed about what happened and who was responsible. The CEO of one Israeli social media monitoring company told POLITICO that the conflict has generated three to four times more online disinformation than any other event his firm has encountered.  Much of that content is proliferating on Elon Musk’s X, formerly called Twitter, which has loosened content restrictions and cut resources used to police the platform since the mogul took it over in 2022. In Europe, where expression is more tightly regulated than in the U.S. and where Musk could face fines of up to 6 percent of X’s revenue, authorities have already sprung into action. The U.K.’s online content regulator met with social media companies about the conflict on October 11, while the European Commission has given Musk 24 hours to clean up graphic videos and disinformation linked to the attacks or face possible fines.