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The siren blared on my phone at 4:38 a.m. on March 11, 2026: “Red Alert – Tel Aviv.” Like millions of Israelis during the current Iran conflict, my family and I moved quickly to our “mamad” – the reinforced safe room mandatory in Israeli homes built after 1993. Within 15 minutes, the all-clear sounded, and we returned to bed.
This has become the rhythm of daily life across Israel. Despite the conflict, restaurants remain open, businesses operate, and children alternate between Zoom classes and occasional shelter drills when sirens sound.
The reality on the ground, however, bears little resemblance to what’s being portrayed on social media platforms like X and TikTok. These platforms are awash with videos claiming Tel Aviv lies in ruins, with widespread electrical outages and devastating missile strikes. Influencers declare Israel is collapsing while claiming the “truth” is being censored.
The problem: much of this content is fabricated, misrepresented, or recycled footage often not even from Israel.
Information warfare is not new. During World War II, Allied soldiers in the Pacific faced English-language propaganda broadcasts from personalities collectively known as “Tokyo Rose,” whose purpose was to undermine morale and spread disinformation. Today’s battlefield has shifted to social media, where a new generation of digital “Tokyo Roses” – often Western influencers with massive followings – spread similar messaging.
One recent example involved widely-shared videos supposedly showing Iranian missile strikes devastating Israeli cities. Fact-checkers quickly determined many were AI-generated fabrications or recycled clips from entirely different events. By the time corrections emerged, the false narrative had already spread globally.
In another incident, pro-Putin influencer Jackson Hinkle circulated a video claiming to show massive crowds mourning Ayatollah Khamenei. Fact-checkers later identified the footage as coming from the 2020 funeral of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani, but the damage was already done.
Some influencers have gone beyond sharing misleading content to promoting geopolitical narratives that align with those pushed by authoritarian regimes. Social media personality Myron Gaines recently claimed Iran “poses no real threat to the United States” and that the conflict should end because it’s “Israel’s problem, not ours.”
This assertion ignores decades of documented history. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Tehran has considered the United States a primary adversary. Iranian leaders regularly chant “Death to America,” and Iran-backed proxies have been responsible for hundreds of American military casualties in Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
Iran has methodically built a network of proxy militias across the Middle East – Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, Shiite militias in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen – which have launched thousands of attacks against American interests and allies. Iran continues expanding its ballistic missile arsenal while pursuing nuclear capabilities.
This military buildup aligns with the broader ambitions of the China-Russia-Iran axis, which collectively seeks to diminish American global influence. Describing such a regime as “no threat” requires ignoring one of the most documented security challenges in contemporary international relations.
In more extreme cases, social media rhetoric has crossed into antisemitic conspiracy theories. Influencer Dan Bilzerian has posted messages accusing Western leaders and Muslim governments cooperating with Israel of “selling out” their people, often invoking claims about hidden Jewish control of Western governments – narratives that mirror themes long promoted by state media in Iran and Russia.
Some messaging directly targets American military readiness. Commentator Candace Owens has shared posts encouraging Americans not to serve in the military while framing the conflict through conspiratorial accusations about hidden motives serving “Jewish interests.” Gaines recently circulated outdated footage from a 2024 Iranian missile strike, presenting it as current – contradicting U.S. Department of Defense assessments that Iran’s military capabilities had been significantly degraded.
Such messaging mirrors classic psychological warfare tactics. What makes today’s environment different is that these narratives no longer need to originate inside adversary nations to reach Western audiences – they’re amplified instantly by influencers with massive followings.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has long treated information warfare as central to its strategy. Iranian state media networks work to portray the Islamic Republic as an innocent victim while depicting Israel and the United States as corrupt aggressors.
Many viral posts go beyond policy criticism to invoke centuries-old antisemitic tropes about Jewish control of governments and global conspiracies. Authoritarian regimes hostile to Israel understand that antisemitic narratives serve as powerful mobilizing tools, transforming regional conflicts into ideological crusades. When influencers with large Western audiences repeat these themes, they normalize ideas that have historically fueled violence against Jewish communities.
The modern “Tokyo Rose” no longer sits behind a microphone in an enemy capital but posts from social media accounts – often from within the democratic societies whose resolve they undermine. Some claim to offer contrarian commentary, while others are motivated by attention or the financial rewards of viral outrage.
Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, life continues between missile alerts, bearing little resemblance to the apocalyptic scenarios circulating online. This contrast between lived reality and digital narrative reveals something important about modern information warfare: propaganda no longer requires governments to broadcast lies – only enough people willing to repeat them.
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