Battle of the hashtags: Gaza conflict waged online
The tweet that launched an Israeli attack on Gaza was followed by a YouTube film of military operations and a social media campaign. Channel 4 News looks at how the war is being waged online.
Communication channels have always been crucial in the war of information. But now those waging the war are bypassing the middle men and using social media to put out their message to the world.
After the Egyptian prime minister’s visit to Gaza on Friday and an attempted ceasefire, anyone in doubt about Israel’s next step was able to find out on Twitter, where Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyhu announced his intentions. “We are going to continue hitting #Hamas hard,” he posted, even remembering to use the hashtag.
We are going to continue hitting #Hamas hard and we will continue to strike hard at the missiles targeted at Central and Southern Israel
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) November 16, 2012
The Israeli prime minister’s tweet is no surprise, given that the latest outbreak of violence in Gaza was announced not by a press conference or statement, but by Twitter from the official account of the Israel Defence Force (IDF). This initial tweet was followed by the ominous threat to Hamas operatives not to “show their faces above ground in the days ahead” – a post that was retweeted over 4,500 times.
On the Palestinian side, an Islamist militant group using the @AlqassamBrigade handle, have fought back with equally forceful language, warning “you opened the gates of hell on yourselves”.
As the Gaza conflict unfolds, both sides are posting regular updates of the casualty count and their military action. Both accounts have been live-tweeting their attacks and using Twitter to publicly rebuff the claims of the other side, each putting forward their estimated count of rockets fired.
The IDF also posted a YouTube video apparently showing a bird’s eye view of the Israeli assassination of the Hamas military that marked the start of the current war, as well as a picture of the assassinated Hamas military chief, Ahmed Jabari, with the stamp “eliminated”.
“It is a veritable ‘shock and awe’ online assault, with Israel live-relaying updates on the combat situation,” says Mike Issac, senior editor at AllThingsD. “It is, if you will, a modern, more social warfare – one tailor-made for the information age.”
PR-savvy
As well as communicating military developments, social media has also proved valuable in garnering public sympathy and campaigning for the cause. One IDF tweet asked followers to retweet if they agreed with Israel’s right for “self-defence”, echoing any organisation trying to broaden appeal for its brand.
What would you do if rockets were striking your country? RT if you agree that #Israel has the right to self-defense. twitter.com/IDFSpokespersoâ?¦
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) November 16, 2012
As the shelling continues and the casualty count rises, hashtags related to the conflict have begun trending, with Israeli tweeters using #PillarofDefense and Palestinians using #Gazaunderattack.
“Unlike the IDF spokesperson, however, the al-Qassam brigades are a bit less careful in managing their image,” says defence expert John Allen Gay. “While they usually refer to their activities as ‘resistance’, they mark some of their attacks with the hashtag #terrorism.”
According to Twitter’s guidelines, users are not permitted to post “direct, specific threats of violence against others”. Although its policy is usually not to intervene, company blocked German users from a neo-Nazi twitter account in October. Twitter declined to comment, but company guidelines say the company does not monitor content, and only acts on specific reports or complaints.
Just as social networking sites were revolutionary during the Arab Spring and were exploited by political campaigns during the US elections, the Gaza conflict shows that few campaigns – military or otherwise – are immune from the pull of online communication.