Israel-Hamas war poses early disinformation test for Meta’s Threads

Young app seems to have few viral falsehoods, perhaps because it's still small and used differently from competitors

When Meta launched Threads, its Instagram-linked Twitter clone, in July, the company promised a kinder and friendlier experience than the divisive content and extremism that often dominate other social networks. Now, as social media users seek out information on the Israel-Hamas war, the young app is facing its first test amid the rampant misinformation emerging from the conflict.

On Telegram and X, previously known as Twitter, repurposed videos, doctored photos and manipulated media falsely claiming to document the war have circulated widely. The quantity of these posts, and scale of their reach, have alarmed fact-checkers, disinformation monitors and extremism experts, who have criticized these social networks for allowing misinformation to flourish.