The platform formerly known as Twitter, now in the Elon Musk era, gets a big test in

a real-time global crisis.

From American Public Media, this is Marketplace Tech.

I'm Lili Jamali.

This weekend, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, people around the world flocked

to Twitter.

It was an X for up-to-the-minute information.

What they found was a site crawling with misinformation.

Images captured months or years earlier in unrelated attacks, inaccurate claims about

other countries entering the conflict.

A fake White House press release announcing billions in new USA to Israel made the rounds,

and X's new owner, Elon Musk, promoting accounts known for spreading lies and hate

didn't help.

The signal-to-noise ratio on X is worse than ever, says David Clinch, a founding partner

of the social media intelligence agency story full.

He's now with media growth partners, and had this advice.

Don't trust anyone online, including yourself.

And what I mean by that is, you know, somebody in a breaking new situation, your urge is

to see an image or a video that's described as showing something and that it's just happened.

Your urge is to share that immediately.

Trust your own urge to do that.

Stop a minute.

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