BBC verification
BBCSince Israel began raiding by Iran last week, a wave of non-information has been unleashed online, examining dozens of posts reviewed by the BBC attempting to amplify the effectiveness of Tehran's response.
In our analysis, numerous videos created using artificial intelligence boast Iran's military capabilities, along with fake clips showing the aftermath of a strike against Israeli targets. The three most viewed fake videos found by BBC Verify collectively accumulate over 100 million views across multiple platforms.
Pro-Israel accounts also share online disinformation, primarily by recirculating old clips of protests and rallying in Iran, falsely claiming it shows dissent and support for the government among Iranians to Israeli military campaigns.
Israel launched a strike in Iran on June 13th, announcing several Iranian missile and drone attacks against Israel.
One organization analyzing open source images described what was “surprising” online, accusing them of trying to benefit from the conflict by sharing misleading content designed to attract attention online.
“We're looking at everything from unrelated footage from Pakistan to recycled videos from the October 2024 strike (some of which have accumulated over 20 million views) and game clips and AI-generated content that have been carried over as real events.”
Certain accounts have become disinformed “super spreaders” and are rewarded with significant growth in followers. One pro-Iran account with no obvious connection with Tehranian authorities (the daily Iranian forces) had grown by June 19 with X's followers exceeding 700,000,000 on June 13, up 85% in less than a week.
Many obscure accounts that have appeared in people's feeds recently. Everything has blue ticks, prolific in messaging, posting disinformation repeatedly. Some people seem to use official names, so some people assume they are the real account, but it's unclear if they're actually running the profile.
The torrent of disinformation marked “the first time I saw the generation AI being used on a large scale during a conflict,” told BBC Verify.
Accounts reviewed by the BBC will see images shared with AI shared to frequently shared AI that appear to be trying to exaggerate the success of Iran's response to the Israeli strike. One image, with 27 million views, depicts dozens of missiles falling in the city of Tel Aviv.
Another video intended to show missile strikes on a building in Israel late at night. Saliba said clips often portray nighttime attacks, making them particularly difficult to verify.
AI Fakes also focuses on claims of destruction of Israeli F-35 fighter jets, a cutting-edge US-made plane that can attack ground and air targets. If the barrage of clips was in real Iran, it would have destroyed 15% of the Israeli fighter fleet, Aretea Analyst Group CEO Lisa Kaplan told BBC Verify. The F-35 has not yet authenticated footage of firedown.
One widely shared post claimed it showed that the jet was damaged after being shot down in the Iranian desert. However, signs of AI manipulation were clear. The civilians around the jet were the same size as nearby vehicles, and the sand showed no signs of impact.
Another video on Tiktok with 21.1 million views claims it shows that the Israeli F-35 is being shot down by air defense, but in reality it has resulted in footage from the flight simulator video game. Tiktok deleted the footage after being approached by BBC verification.
Kaplan said that the focus on the F-35 was driven by a network of accounts that Alethea had previously been linked to Russian influence operations.
She said that Russian influence operations have recently shifted the course to sow questions about Western capabilities, particularly the capabilities of American weapons, as they undermine support for war in Ukraine.
“Russia has not actually responded to the F-35, so what can it do? It can be called for in certain countries to undermine support for it,” Kaplan said.
Disinformation is also spread by well-known accounts that previously emphasized the Israeli-Gaza War and other conflicts.
Their motivations vary, but experts said that some experts may be trying to monetize the conflict as some major social media platforms offer payments to accounts that achieve many opinions.
In contrast, the pro-Israel post focuses heavily on the proposal that the Iranian government faces growing opposition as a continuation of the strike
Among them is a widely shared AI-created video aimed at showing the Iranian chant “We Love Israel” on the streets of Tehran.
However, recently, and as speculation about the US on Iranian nuclear sites grows, some accounts have begun posting AI-generated images of B-2 bombers to Tehran. The B-2 has been attracting attention since the Israeli strike against Iran began. Because it is the only aircraft that can effectively carry out attacks on Iran's underground nuclear sites.
Official Iranian and Israeli sources share some fake images. Tehran's state media shares fake footage of the strike and AI-generated images of the fallen F-35 jet, while a post shared by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) received community notes on the X to use the old, unrelated missile barrage of hell.
Many disinformation reviewed by BBC Verify is shared on X, and users frequently rely on the platform's AI chatbot (Grok) to establish the truthfulness of their posts.
However, in some cases, Grok claimed that AI videos were authentic. One such video showed an endless stream of trucks carrying ballistic missiles emerging from mountainside complexes. Signs of tailing in AI content included rocks in his consent video, Saliba said.
However, in response to X users, Grok repeatedly claimed that the video was authentic, citing reports from media, including Newsweek and Reuters. “Be sure to clarify the news you can trust,” the chatbot concluded with several messages.
X did not respond to the BBC request. We did not confirm any comments regarding the chatbot action.
Many videos have also appeared on Tiktok and Instagram. In a statement to the BBC Verification, Tiktok said it will actively implement community guidelines “prohibit inaccurate, misleading or false content” and will work with independent fact checkers to “verify misleading content.”
Instagram owner Meta did not respond to requests for comment.
The motivations of people creating online counterfeits vary, but many are shared by regular social media users.
Matthew Fassiani, a researcher at the University of Notre Dame, suggested that disinformation could spread online more quickly when people face binary choices, such as those raised by conflict and politics.
“It speaks to the broader social and psychological issues of people who want to repaint things when they are consistent with their political identity, and in general, more sensational emotional content spreads more quickly online.”
