Israeli attacks targeting Hezbollah have left the Iranian-backed Lebanese group, once the most powerful group in Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance,” without a leader, threatening further destabilization in the region and reprisal attacks.
The Israel Defense Forces commenced what it referred to as “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids” across the Lebanese border on Monday, days after killing Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike in southern Beirut amid intensified air raids against the neighboring country. Also killed was Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Abbas Nilforushan.
Amid the continuing violence, the world awaits who will replace Nasrallah, with a hoax post on social media post suggesting the Lebanese group was seeking online applications for new leadership elsewhere.
Demonstrators at a rally in Tehran on October 1, after Iran fired missiles into Israel. A post widely shared on X appeared to show a LinkedIn post recruiting for Hezbollah.
HOSSEIN BERIS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
The Claim
A post on X, formerly Twitter, by user @visegrad24, on October 4, 2024, viewed more than 111,000 times, said: “Hezbollah is hiring! For some reason, they are barely receiving any applications.”
The post included what looked like a LinkedIn page that says “Hezbollah Terror Inc.” is looking for a “CTO (Chief Terror Officer).”
The “Position Summary” included antisemitic language, adding, “We are constantly hiring. The Israelis have really good aim.”
The Facts
While the post is clearly a hoax, the suggestion alone appeared to have convinced some X users. One user wrote: “Is this real?”
Others wrote “Nobody will join lol,” “Who would want that job?” and “Is this real? Because many times I’ve thought something to be satire but it turned out to be true. These days I just can’t tell the difference anymore.”
User @visegrad24, which describes itself as a “news, politics and current affairs” aggregator, has repeatedly shared far less obviously misleading content elsewhere.
Multiple fact-checking teams, including Newsweek’s, have investigated its content on topics ranging from the war in Ukraine to the conflict in Gaza. As reported by AFP Fact Check, the account has helped spread conspiratorial theories, including the widely debunked notion of “crisis actors.”
It does not typically post parody or satirical content, which may explain why some of its readers could have fallen for this post. Similar posts have been posted on other websites that describe themselves as “satirical.”
In any case, by virtue of its content, the post about Hezbollah is not real.
A spokesperson for LinkedIn told Newsweek, “Our teams investigated and confirmed this was not a job posted on LinkedIn where we require all jobs be real and authentic.”
The Ruling
Satire.
The post is a hoax, including antisemitic language. The account behind the post has repeatedly shared less obviously misleading content and conspiracy theories elsewhere on topics ranging from the war in Ukraine to the conflict in Gaza.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team
