A photo appearing to show digital billboards in New York with the words, “Ceasefires Are Anti-Semitic” has gone viral on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. But it’s been photoshopped. The billboard clearly reads “Be Human. Stand For Israel,” in the untouched photo.
X has been flooded with political messages about the Israel-Hamas war ever since Hamas launched a coordinated attack on Israel on October 7 that killed 1,400 people. Israel responded with airstrikes that have so far killed over 5,000 people, according to the United Nations.
It’s unclear who first made the photoshopped version of the billboard but the original photo, where you can clearly see it reads “Be Human. Stand For Israel,” dates to at least October 19, when the Facebook account Israel in New York published it.
The fake version of the photo, which as been viewed over 580,000 times on X, doesn’t have a Community Note, the crowdsourced fact-checking system that used to be known as Birdwatch before Elon Musk bought the site. But I can bet it’ll get a Community Note not long after this story is published, given the fact that members of the program often add notes with evidence provided by fact-checkers at mainstream news outlets but don’t link out to those articles.
As one recent example, I fact-checked some photos on October 21 that had been upscaled using AI software that didn’t have a Community Note attached. But less than an hour after my article was published, the crowdsourced fact-checkers added a note, without any mention of my work verifying the images.
The Israel-Hamas war has seen countless people waging an information war online and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon. But make sure you take everything you see with a grain of salt. X has been particularly bad during this conflict, if only because Musk has set up incentives for spreading fake information, including a program to pay for engagement, along with a “verification” system that doesn’t actually verify anyone’s identity.
All we know is this particular image is completely fake and doesn’t read “Ceasefires Are Anti-Semitic.” But there will be more fakes soon. And you can bet they’ll probably appear first on X, the new central hub of disinformation.
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