Experts baffled by Israel president's unchallenged 'fake news' Noa Argamani X post

Social media experts have raised concerns about the lack of a 'community note' on an X post by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, where he falsely claimed that former Gaza captive Noa Argamani was "beaten and abused by Hamas".

Despite Argamani publicly refuting claims she was beaten in captivity, Herzog's post remains unflagged on X, formerly Twitter.

Users have questioned why the platform's community note system has not been activated to flag the veracity of the post with calls for a public correction.

Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor at Northwestern University Qatar, told The New Arab that while a community note had been created, it is still not visible due to insufficient engagement, highlighting potential flaws in the system.

Herzog's 23 August post received massive engagement on X, with Jones pointing out it is "weird" there are not enough ratings for a note that would correct the claims.

While X says it will not remove or address notes unless they violate its rules, terms of service, or privacy policy, Jones said it was "possible a third party could manipulate it, or X internally".

"Even if there is nothing suspicious going on, it shows that community notes are not fit for purpose," Jones told The New Arab, adding that the disinformation has been "circulating without correction" for four days.

"At the very least, it shows the CN [community note] is not so useful since most people will never see that post again," Jones added.

Agramani was freed following an Israeli raid that killed 274 Palestinians, meeting senior diplomats from G7 countries and Israeli officials to speak about her time in captivity.

Writing on X, Herzog claimed that Argamani was "beaten and abused by Hamas", something the former hostage strongly rejected, saying the injuries she sustained during captivity were caused by a wall collapsing on her following an Israeli airstrike.

She also rejected claims Hamas had forcibly cut her hair and said she would not be "victimised" by the media.

"I cannot ignore what happened here over the past 24 hours, taking my words out of context," Argamani said on Instagram.

Despite this, Herzog has not corrected his initial claim or taken down the tweet.

If an X post contains false information, users will add a community note to correct it.

Community notes are a feature aimed at adding context or correcting misinformation on potentially misleading X posts but despite Argamani correcting Herzog's 'false' post, there is no community note affixed to this.

"Where is the community note @elonmusk - Noa Argamani has refuted these claims," one user wrote on X, replying to Herzog.

"Notice there is no community note even after @NoaArgamani refuted it herself!" said another.

"It's been 3 days & yet the President of Israel still has this post up, with no 'community note', claiming Argamani says she was beaten by Hamas. She has since put out a statement saying that never happened & that her injuries came from Israel bombing the building she was in," another user added.