Following the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has triggered heated public debate on social media. This phenomenon has allowed the world to witness the powerful influence of public opinion in modern wars.

This new form of public opinion warfare via social media has many aspects worth analyzing.

Research and tracking by an American think tank found that both Palestine and Israel make choices based on their respective content push rules on social media.

Hamas is active on Telegram. Data shows that since the beginning of the conflict, the number of followers of organizations such as Hamas’s Qassam Brigade on Telegram has increased significantly.

Israel has invested major efforts on the "X" platform, and although the number of followers of its government- or military-related accounts has increased, this growth has not been as rapid as the growth of Hamas' followers on the "Telegram" platform.

The Twitter account of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs had 938,000 followers before the conflict broke out. Now the number of followers has increased to 1.377 million.

In both Palestine and Israel, there are also differences in the growth of accounts in different languages.

The English accounts of Israeli domestic media on Twitter have grown significantly faster than their Hebrew accounts. Among Twitter accounts, the growth momentum of English content is significantly stronger than that of Hebrew content. On the Twitter platform, English-based accounts are growing significantly faster than accounts using Hebrew. Observing Twitter data, in Israeli media, the growth rate of English accounts greatly exceeds that of Hebrew accounts.

This shows that in the process of selecting a platform, both parties have thought about the language strategy used in the platform content.

In the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, false information is rampant beyond imagination.

Just like the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, many fake accounts have emerged here, using "generative adversarial networks" and social robots to create and spread false information.

At the beginning of the conflict, the outside world urgently needed to understand the situation, but media experts could not provide much information in a short period of time, which led to the emergence of an "information blank period."

It has been widely circulated that Hamas's raid on Israel caught Israel off guard. Some people believed that this was because there was an insider.

Most foreign media and experts have pointed out that in the face of false information in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, internationally renowned social media platforms are generally not immune and have fallen into it.

The Washington Post cited research saying that most false information originates from within the region.

Officials pointed out that obtaining information through social media can lead to serious misunderstandings.

Professor Hamad bin Khalifa University mentioned that during armed conflicts, the amount of false information rises. At the same time, he pointed out that social media platforms are not well prepared to deal with this situation.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been called the first "social media war" in history. It marked the birth of a new form of public opinion warfare in modern warfare.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has something in common in terms of public opinion warfare, such as the existence of fake accounts spreading false information.

During the Russia-Ukraine conflict, a lot of false information emerged, which had a multifaceted impact on the international community's understanding of the conflict.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues this chaotic trend of public opinion wars on social media.

Both sides use the strengths of their respective platforms to influence the trend of public opinion. At the same time, under the impact of information warfare, it is common to find it difficult to distinguish authenticity from fake.

However, the conflict between Palestine and Israel has its own particularities. This conflict arises in the context of long-term and complex contradictions. Religion, geopolitics and other factors are intertwined, making the influencing factors behind the public opinion war richer. In addition, the complexity of information sources far exceeds the situation during the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Faced with the proliferation of false information in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the response from all aspects seems pale.

Major international social media have failed to implement effective management and control over such a huge amount of false information.

These platforms are supposed to be responsible for verifying the authenticity of information, yet they have become breeding grounds for misinformation.

It failed to use its own algorithm advantages or management mechanisms to effectively contain it.

From a national perspective, neither Palestine nor Israel nor other international countries have formulated specific governance measures to deal with false information on social media in this conflict.

There is no corresponding force organized to carry out fact-checking or public opinion guidance.

When faced with the storm of rumors triggered by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the international community lacks an effective coordination mechanism.

There are actually many driving forces behind the proliferation of false information in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Some groups may spread falsehoods out of political self-interest or regional political competition.

If a country intends to strengthen alliance ties or confront adversaries in the Middle East, it may use social tools to shape public opinion.

Economic interests are another reason. Some business organizations seek to benefit from the chaotic markets caused by the conflict. They may spread false information and cause market volatility.

For example, some energy companies may use false news to control oil prices in the oil market.

The spread of these false information is often accompanied by complex demands from the interest groups behind it.

Ordinary people in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict suffer from disinformation.

In the vast amount of information, it is difficult for most people to distinguish between true and false.

People generally expect to know the truth about conflicts, and they want to protect themselves and support justice by having true information.

But they are often fooled by the mixed messages of truth and falsehood on social media.

Some residents living on the Palestinian-Israeli border may have mistakenly believed false information, leading to inappropriate asylum choices.

People in the international community often find it difficult to accurately grasp the truth of conflicts in the face of complicated social media information. At the same time, it is difficult for them to fairly judge the rights and wrongs of both parties in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Therefore, it is often difficult to make a choice when expressing a political stance.

The public opinion triggered by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on social media is complex and ever-changing, and the spread of various false information has brought a lot of trouble to all walks of life.

So, how do you think the international community can work together to face the proliferation of disinformation in this conflict context?