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Social Media and AI Disrupt, Distort Iran War Coverage

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A social media post by Donald Trump announces the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and is displayed on a smartphone in this photo illustration. Trump states in a post on Truth Social that Khamenei is killed during military strikes. This photo is taken in Brussels, Belgium, on March 1, 2026. (Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Airdate: Wednesday, March 25 at 9 AM

In 2022, the conflict in Ukraine unleashed the first TikTok war. Now, four years later with the war in Iran, AI and a souped up social media are documenting and often distorting how we view that conflict. The Trump administration is keen to ‘gameify’ war with social media clips ripped from video games and action movies, and nations on all sides of the war are pushing out disinformation that is making it hard to understand what is happening. We talk about AI, disinformation and social media as tools of war.

Guests:

Kyle Chayka, staff writer, The New Yorker; his recent piece on the Iran War is titled "War in the Age of the Online 'Information Bomb;'" author, "Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture"

Tiffany Hsu, technology reporter, The New York Times

Drew Harwell, technology reporter, The Washington Post

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