As the conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran escalates, social media platforms are grappling with a surge in AI-generated war videos and other misinformation, with X Company recently revealing it had dismantled a Pakistan-based network that was posting fabricated conflict footage.
Nikita Veer, head of product at X, said the platform had identified a user in Pakistan who was running a connected network of accounts that spread artificial intelligence-generated war videos.
“Last night we discovered a man in Pakistan who was managing 31 accounts posting AI war videos,” Beer wrote on X. “Everything was hacked and the username was changed to ‘Iran War Monitor’ or some variation thereof on February 27th.”
Beer said the accounts were quickly removed as part of the platform’s growing efforts to detect and curb organized disinformation campaigns. “We’re much faster at detecting this, and we’re also eliminating the incentive to do this,” he added.
His response was to XPost, which posted a deepfake of an Iranian rocket hitting a ship in Tel Aviv, Israel. The video’s poster, Ahmed Hamdan, claims in his introduction that he is a journalist from Gaza.
AI misinformation spikes during conflict
The revelations come amid a massive explosion of AI misinformation amid the ongoing West Asia crisis, in which the United States and Israel have launched attacks on Iran, sparking retaliatory attacks across the region.
As military exchanges intensify, social media platforms are flooded with images and videos claiming attacks and damage in Iran, Israel and other parts of the Middle East. But investigators and fact-checkers say many of these posts contain manipulated or outright fabricated content.
In one incident covered by the Financial Times, Iran’s Tehran Times newspaper, including its official X account, claimed that satellite images circulated online showed damage to an American radar system in Qatar after an Iranian drone strike.
Analysis by the paper revealed that the images had been altered using artificial intelligence. Although real satellite imagery confirmed that the radar site was damaged, the widely shared image was actually an AI-retouched photo of a location in Bahrain.
Despite its falsehood, the post garnered nearly 1 million views on X and remained online for more than two days.
Fake images, recycled footage cause confusion
This conflict is not the first time that AI-generated media has become widespread during wartime.
According to a BBC report, during the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran in June 2025, several AI-generated videos went viral that purported to show Iranian military might and damage to Israeli infrastructure.
Pro-Israel accounts also shared misleading posts, including old videos of protests that were falsely presented as demonstrations against Iranian leadership.
Verification group Geoconfirmed has repeatedly reported fake or mislabeled clips during the current dispute. In one recent incident, the group debunked a viral theory that the deadly attack on a girls’ school in Minab was caused by a failed missile launch by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, rather than an attack by the United States and Israel.
The misleading post had already received nearly 11,000 likes and more than 750,000 views before it was challenged.
In other cases, old footage has resurfaced as alleged evidence of new attacks. One widely shared video claimed to show Iranian missiles striking Tel Aviv, but investigators later determined the footage was actually from the 2024 earthquake in Turkey.
AI tools lower barriers to misinformation
Experts say the rapid development of generative AI tools has dramatically lowered the barrier to creating convincing fake content.
“With satellite imagery, you’re looking at buildings, roads, terrain, and other things that don’t have any inherent clues,” says Henk van Es, an expert in online investigation methods. “Most people don’t know what a real satellite image looks like from a particular sensor at a particular resolution.”
Brady Africk, an open source intelligence researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, warned that falsified satellite images could be a big problem for journalists and analysts trying to track conflicts.
“Satellite imagery can be manipulated just like any other imagery, and AI has made it so much easier,” Afric says.
Platforms and governments respond
In response to the spread of fake content, Company X said it is stepping up its crackdown on AI-generated war media posted without publication.
Under the new rules, users who post AI-generated videos of armed conflict without an armed conflict label will be banned from the platform’s creator revenue sharing program for 90 days. Repeat violations may result in permanent removal from the program.
The company also expanded its use of its “Community Notes” feature, which allows users to add context and fact checks to misleading posts.
Governments around the world are also beginning to issue warnings against the spread of false information. In the United Arab Emirates, Dubai Police warned residents against sharing rumors and unverified images about security incidents, saying violators could be fined at least 200,000 dirhams.
