X, formerly Twitter, amplifies disinformation amid the Israel-Hamas conflict

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2 years ago

October 9, 2023

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From the outset of this weekend’s Israel-Hamas conflict, graphic footage of abductions and military operations have spread like wildfire on social media platforms, including X, formerly known as Twitter. But disinformation on the platform has made it harder for users to assess what’s going on in the region.

Over the weekend, X flagged several posts as misleading or false, including a video purportedly showing Israeli airstrikes against Hamas in Gaza. Thousands of users saw the posts, and the most widely shared posts were flagged as misleading by the platform. Still, dozens of posts with the same video and caption were not flagged by X’s system, according to CNBC’s review.

The patchwork enforcement comes days after NBC News reported that X made cuts to its disinformation and election integrity team. Shortly before Hamas launched its surprise attack, X removed headlines from links on the platform, making external links difficult to tell apart from standard photos shared on X.

Before Elon Musk acquired Twitter, the company’s management had devoted significant resources to fighting manipulated or misleading information. After Musk took over, renaming the platform, he slashed head count in teams dedicated to fighting misinformation and criticized the company’s past work with the U.S. government on Covid-19 disinformation.

Under Musk, X has prioritized user-driven content tagging with Community Notes, the preexisting feature formerly known as Birdwatch. But a September study from the EU found that despite the feature, which adds crowdsourced context to posts, disinformation was more discoverable on X than on any other social media platform and received more engagement than on other platforms, on a relative basis.

Alex Goldenberg, an analyst at the Network Contagion Research Institute, studies hate and right-wing extremism on social media and in the real world. Goldenberg told CNBC that even before Musk’s tenure, Twitter had a challenging time handling non-English disinformation.

“I’ve often found that mis- and disinformation and incitement to violence in the English language are prioritized, but those in Arabic are often overlooked,” Goldenberg said. He added that NCRI has noted an uptick in “recycled videos and photos from older conflict being associated, intentionally sometimes, with this particular conflict.”

Users have noticed the impact of the changes to X’s content moderation, and some have fallen prey to sharing disinformation on the platform.

“It’s remarkable how Elon Musk has destroyed what was perhaps the best thing about Twitter: the ability to get relatively accurate and trustworthy data in real time when there’s a crisis,” Paul Bernal, an IT law professor at the University of East Anglia in England, wrote on X on Monday.

On Sunday, a British politician shared a video purportedly from a BBC correspondent. “Following some pretty appalling equivocation and whataboutary from the BBC yesterday and this morning, now this from a BBC journalist,” wrote Chris Clarkson, a member of parliament for Heywood & Middleton.

The video was not from a BBC correspondent; Clarkson wrote Monday that his “comments on the BBC stand” but conceded that the original post was not from a BBC journalist.

Although government verification now awards certain accounts a silver checkmark, verification for notable individuals and reporters was phased out in favor of paid Twitter Blue verification, making it “even more difficult to ascertain whether the messenger of a particular message or its content is authentic,” Goldenberg said.

Some Hamas-created propaganda videos have also been circulating on X. While the terrorist organization is banned from most social media platforms, including X, it continues to share videos on Telegram. Those videos — including some from the most recent assault on Israel — are often reshared onto X, Goldenberg told CNBC. And that can have real-world effects.

“As we’ve seen in the past, especially in May of 2021, for example, when tensions rise in the region, there’s a high possibility of a rise in hate crimes targeting the Jewish community outside of the region,” Goldenberg said.

Paid verification purportedly boosts a user’s posts and comments on X, and some posts tagged as misleading have come from those verified users. Musk himself has amplified such posts on several occasions — both pertaining to the conflict in Ukraine and more recently in Israel. On Sunday, Musk encouraged his 160 million followers to follow two accounts which Musk said had “good” content about the conflict.

One of those users had made anti-Semitic posts in the past, including one where the person told a Twitter user to “mind your own business, jew.” Musk later deleted his post promoting the account.

Correction: This article has been updated to correctly reflect Alex Goldenberg’s comment on English-language disinformation on X and Twitter. A previous version contained a transcription error.

Technology

Anthropic reportedly preparing for one of the largest IPOs ever in race with OpenAI: FT

Published

4 hours ago

December 3, 2025

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Anthropic reportedly preparing for one of the largest IPOs ever in race with OpenAI: FT

Nurphoto | Getty Images

Anthropic, the AI startup behind the popular Claude chatbot, is in early talks to launch one of the largest initial public offerings as early as next year, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

For the potential IPO, Anthropic has engaged law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which has previously worked on high-profile tech IPOs such as Google, LinkedIn and Lyft, the FT said, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

The start-up, led by chief executive Dario Amodei, was also pursuing a private funding round that could value it above $300 billion, including a $15 billion combined commitment from Microsoft and Nvidia, per the report.

It added that Anthropic has also discussed a potential IPO with major investment banks, but that sources characterized the discussions as preliminary and informal.

If true, the news could position Anthropic in a race to market with rival ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, which is also reportedly laying the groundwork for a public offering. The potential listings would also test investors’ appetite for loss-making AI startups amid growing fears of a so-called AI bubble.

However, an Anthropic spokesperson told the FT: “It’s fairly standard practice for companies operating at our scale and revenue level to effectively operate as if they are publicly traded companies,” adding that no decisions have been made on timing or whether to go public.

CNBC was unable to reach Anthropic and Wilson Sonsini, which has advised Anthropic for a few years, for comment.

According to one of the FT’s sources, Anthropic has been working through internal preparations for a potential listing, though details were not provided.

The FT report follows several notable changes at the company of late, including the hiring of former Airbnb executive Krishna Rao, who played a key role in the firm’s 2020 IPO.

CNBC also reported last month that Anthropic was recently valued to the range of $350 billion after receiving investments of up to $5 billion from Microsoft and $10 billion from Nvidia.

In its race to overtake OpenAI in the AI space, the startup has also been expanding aggressively, recently announcing a $50 billion AI infrastructure build-out with data centers in Texas and New York, and tripling its international workforce.

According to the FT report, investors in the company are enthusiastic about Anthropic’s potential IPO, which could see it “seize the initiative” from OpenAI.

While OpenAI has been rumoured to be considering an IPO, its chief financial officer recently said the company is not pursuing a near-term listing, even as it closed a $6.6 billion share sale at a $500 billion valuation in October.

Technology

We’re raising our CrowdStrike price target following a beat and raise quarter

Published

6 hours ago

December 3, 2025

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We're raising our CrowdStrike price target following a beat and raise quarter

Technology

Okta shares fall as company declines to give guidance for next fiscal year

Published

9 hours ago

December 2, 2025

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Okta shares fall as company declines to give guidance for next fiscal year

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Okta on Tuesday topped Wall Street’s third-quarter estimates and issued an upbeat outlook, but shares fell as the company did not provide guidance for fiscal 2027.

Shares of the identity management provider fell more than 3% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.

Here’s how the company did versus LSEG estimates:

Earnings per share: 82 cents adjusted vs. 76 cents expected
Revenue: $742 million vs. $730 million expected

Compared to previous third-quarter reports, Okta refrained from offering preliminary guidance for the upcoming fiscal year. Finance chief Brett Tighe cited seasonality in the fourth quarter, and said providing guidance would require “some conservatism.”

Okta released a capability that allows businesses to build AI agents and automate tasks during the third quarter.

CEO Todd McKinnon told CNBC that upside from AI agents haven’t been fully baked into results and could exceed Okta’s core total addressable market over the next five years.

“It’s not in the results yet, but we’re investing, and we’re capitalizing on the opportunity like it will be a big part of the future,” he said in a Tuesday interview.

Revenues increased almost 12% from $665 million in the year-ago period. Net income increased 169% to $43 million, or 24 cents per share, from $16 million, or breakeven, a year ago. Subscription revenues grew 11% to $724 million, ahead of a $715 million estimate.

For the current quarter, the cybersecurity company expects revenues between $748 million and $750 million and adjusted earnings of 84 cents to 85 cents per share. Analysts forecast $738 million in revenues and EPS of 84 cents for the fourth quarter.

Returning performance obligations, or the company’s subscription backlog, rose 17% from a year ago to $4.29 billion and surpassed a $4.17 billion estimate from StreetAccount.

This year has been a blockbuster period for cybersecurity companies, with major acquisition deals from the likes of Palo Alto Networks and Google and a raft of new initial public offerings from the sector.

Okta shares have gained about 4% this year.

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