Shortly after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, and amid Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza, the Ansar Allah group in Yemen — also known as the Houthis — began firing missiles at Israel and attacking and hijacking ships in the Red Sea.
As hostilities progressed, false information soared. “The extent of media misinformation in Yemen is huge,” said Farouq Al-Kamali, the founder of the fact-checking platform, Yoopyup. “This misinformation takes several forms: political misinformation, security misinformation, economic misinformation, and religious misinformation, based on the nature of the ongoing conflict in Yemen, in which religious, political, military, and economic complexities intertwine.”
In this environment, fact-checking initiatives in Yemen have strived to fight misinformation, and instead provide their audience with factual information. Here’s how they’re doing it:
The Hakikah platform
Misinformation in Yemen around the war has taken a variety of forms including fake images, exaggerated casualty figures, and statements falsely claiming successful military strikes against the multinational forces in the Red Sea.
The crisis has posed new challenges for initiatives like the Hakikah fact-checking platform.
Launched in 2021, Hakikah uses a three-step verification methodology, which entails identifying the original purveyors of information, gathering details about the sources of false content, and using tools such as YouTube’s DataViewer and Fake news debunker by inVID and WeVerify, to assess the authenticity of photos and videos.
“We work voluntarily, and we try to keep up with all developments related to Yemen, and we have been working to combat all rumors and misleading news since 2021,” said Hakikah’s editor-in-chief, Mohammed Mahroos.
In August, for example, multiple Yemeni accounts posted on X claiming that the U.S. aircraft carrier Eisenhower, previously stationed in the Red Sea, was targeted with a missile attack from Yemen. However, the Hakikikah platform tracked down official press releases from the U.S. Navy explaining that the Eisenhower had, in fact, left the Red Sea in June.
In October, Yemeni news websites and social media accounts published a photo claiming that U.S. and British warplanes had launched attacks on the Yemeni capital of Sana’a. Using Google Reverse Image Search, Hakikah found that the photo was instead that of an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, Lebanon.
The Sidq platform
Sidq, established in 2019, uses open-source intelligence, direct verification with officials and experts, and field visits to confirm events on the ground. The platform aims to monitor and correct inaccurate information published on news sites and social media accounts, including fabricated documents and false statements attributed to political actors.
In August, social media accounts posted a video, claiming that a Houthi attack had hit a Panamanian cargo ship in the Red Sea. The Sidq team used Google Reverse Image Search to find that the video was in fact that of an explosion of a storage vessel off the coast of Nigeria in February 2022.
In October, multiple social media accounts posted a purported quote attributed to the Houthi military spokesperson claiming that the militant group had suspended attacks on international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. Sidq sought to track down the original press statement made by the spokesperson but found that no such statement had been made. The platform immediately published the verification on its website and its social media accounts.
Sidq also has a section on its website where followers can report instances of mis- and disinformation for their team to verify.
The Yoopyup platform
Yoopyup, which began operating in late 2023, focuses on fact-checking and open-source investigation related to developments in Yemen, while following up on news spread on social media accounts and popular sites such as Saba Net and Al-Masirah TV. The platform analyzes and verifies multimedia around issues that impact social harmony, shape public opinion, or incite fear and terror.
In October, accounts on X posted a picture of a drone, claiming it was property of the Houthis. Using Google Reverse Image Search, Yoopyup revealed that the image was in reality of a Chinese drone called the Twin-Tailed Scorpion, and not used by the Houthis.
Also in October, the Houthi spokesman announced in a televised statement that they had targeted the Megalopolis container ship in the Arabian Sea with drones. Yoopyup utilized open-source ship tracking tools, such as VesselFinder, MarineTraffic, and SHIPINFO, to determine this was inaccurate, and instead that the ship had safely crossed the Arabian Sea and docked at the port of Salalah in the Sultanate of Oman the following day.
Challenges to fact-checking in Yemen
Despite the work of these outlets and others, many Yemeni media organizations do not consider fact-checking necessary, said Mahroos: “Media institutions are not keen to hire fact-checkers, and most news-checking platforms in Yemen operate on a voluntary basis.”
Journalist and fact-checker Sakeena Mohammed stressed that most Yemeni media outlets don’t take fact-checking seriously. “[They] view the fact-checking process as a form of entertainment, even though it is a necessity.”
According to Mahroos, the absence of verification and fact-checking staff in media organizations contributes to the further spread of disinformation. Unstable internet access across Yemen remains a barrier, too. "Fact-checking requires a strong internet connection because we use reverse search tools for images, videos, and texts,” said Mahroos.
Photo by Mohammad Hadi via Pexels.
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