(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Jonathan Conn - Social media played a crucial role in shaping public opinion around the 2021 Hamas-Israel conflict. This study looks at influential social media posts propelled to the spotlight in the social media "battlefield" on TikTok, Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Wikipedia. Social media activists can warp events, images, and videos to fit their agenda without any accountability. Users can post unlimited comments, insults, racism, and lies. In this environment, herd mentality fueled by emotion trumps truth and reason. Posts with the most likes and views are propelled to the spotlight regardless of veracity. Israel must learn to overcome its foes on the social media battlefield. The writer is a student at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.
2021-07-15 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive