In the wake of recent military actions involving the United States and Israel targeting Iran, a significant surge of AI-generated and miscaptioned video clips and images has inundated social media platforms. Full Fact, the United Kingdom's largest fact-checking charity dedicated to exposing and countering harmful misinformation, has compiled a round-up of these deceptive claims from the past few days.
Widespread Misinformation Campaign
Full Fact has identified at least twenty prominent examples of such posts being shared extensively online, but this number represents merely the tip of the iceberg. Verification experts and fact-checkers globally have flagged dozens more instances, highlighting a coordinated or opportunistic spread of false information. The charity works tirelessly to find, expose, and counter the damages caused by bad information, which can escalate tensions and mislead the public during volatile geopolitical events.
Old Footage Presented as New Attacks
Many of the examples documented involve old video clips or photographs that are entirely unrelated to the current Middle East conflict being circulated as if they depict recent events. For instance, one video shared with claims that it shows an Iranian missile strike on Dubai actually dates back to at least October 2024. Another clip posted on Instagram, which garnered over 180,000 views, falsely purported to show a US airbase in Saudi Arabia "burnt to ashes." In reality, this footage captures the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on the port of Hudaydah in Yemen from July 2024.
Some of this miscaptioned footage has even been recycled from previous conflicts, accompanied by equally false narratives. A video of explosions near a building was shared on Saturday with assertions that it depicted an Iranian missile attack on Tel Aviv in Israel. However, this is actually footage from 2015 showing explosions at a warehouse in the Chinese city of Tianjin. Notably, the same clip was previously shared in relation to Russia's invasion of Ukraine back in 2022, demonstrating a pattern of repurposing content to fit new false claims.
AI-Generated Content Proliferates
The proliferation of AI-generated content in the aftermath of major breaking news events has become increasingly common, and recent days have been no exception. Even when AI images appear low quality or retain visible watermarks, they are often shared on a large scale, contributing to the spread of misinformation.
For example, a dramatic image depicting Dubai's iconic Burj Khalifa building on fire was generated using artificial intelligence. It contains a SynthID watermark, indicating that it was created or altered using Google AI technology. Similarly, an image supposedly showing the body of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lying partially buried in rubble also features a SynthID watermark, along with several visual inconsistencies that confirm its falsity.
False Claims About UK Home Secretary
Additionally, social media posts have circulated claiming that the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, participated in a minute's silence to mark the death of Ayatollah Khamenei. Full Fact has verified that this is not true. Upon contacting the Home Office, the charity was informed that Ms Mahmood did not engage in such an act. No credible media outlets have reported these claims, and there is no other evidence to support them.
An image shared alongside these false claims on platforms like X and Facebook originates from a visit Ms Mahmood made to a mosque in Southport in 2024, further illustrating how authentic images can be miscontextualised to propagate misinformation.
Combatting Misinformation
For more detailed information on the false and misleading claims currently circulating on social media regarding the Middle East conflict, readers are encouraged to consult Full Fact's comprehensive round-up of fact checks. The charity also offers a practical toolkit with tips that anyone can use to identify bad information, including specific guides on how to spot misleading images online, how to fact-check deceptive videos, and how fact-checkers detect AI-generated content.
As the UK prepares to send more support to the region, the need for accurate information becomes ever more critical to inform public discourse and policy decisions.
