Forensics expert David Notowitz zeroes in on lies and disinformation
IN mid-December, a video allegedly showing Israel Defense Forces soldiers running over civilians at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza blew up online. One headline read, “Bulldozed & Buried Alive: Israel Army Slammed for Deadly Raids at Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital,” while Al Jazeera put out a piece called, “People ‘buried alive’ outside Gaza hospital during Israeli raid.”
The only problem with the story? It was completely false. A fact-check by Reuters found that the alleged video was actually from Egypt in 2013, when authorities used a bulldozer to disperse a Cairo sit-in by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
The bulldozing video is just one example of the many false videos, images, and news reports that have been widely spread in the war of information happening online since the war against Hamas started on the ground.
Since October 7, David Notowitz, an audio and video forensics expert and founder of the Los Angeles-based National Center for Audio and Video Forensics, has made it a point to fight the misinformation and educate people on how to spot AI images, deepfake videos, and false news reports. He appeared on Fox News to discuss the Gaza hospital bombing headlines, telling the audience, “The first thing to think about when you’re looking at videos, stills, images, documents, anything coming in, any news form, is: Do you trust the source? Is this source proven to be someone that you can generally trust over the long term? I think that’s going to be the bottom line now.”
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