Conspiracy theories are not a new phenomenon in the Middle East. Many governments and influential organisations in the region – if not all of them – have long thrived on the power of disinformation and propaganda, which not only confuses enemies but keeps citizens in a state of pliant uncertainty.

The wide horizons of the internet make it easier than ever before to mask ulterior motives. That Russian stories spread by legions of Twitter bots and trolls managed to so spectacularly derail the 2016 US election has conclusively proved that we are living in a post-truth era.

The impact the new fake news ecosystem could have when the Middle East’s appetite for half-truths meets increasingly sophisticated methods of spreading political disinformation, however, are not yet known – and could have devastating consequences.

Saudi Arabia cuts ties with Qatar over terror links

The possibility for fresh disruption in the increasingly polarised region is immense, said Dr Jean Marc Rickli, a research fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and King's College London.

“The potential explosive power of fake news sites is even more important in societies that are unstable or weak or divided along sectarian lines in the first place,” he said.

“When fake news targets that aspect of identity it has a very strong mobilising power,” he added.

In Lebanon, many are already on edge give the precarious situation in Syria and media drum-beating for another round of war between Hezbollah and Israel.

It is common for Lebanese to share news updates and other messages via WhatsApp and SMS, copying and pasting the text to others in their contact lists. Given the context, however, one fake news story which circulated recently raised more than a few eyebrows.

“Urgent”, read the message, which purported to be from Reuters news agency. “Hezbollah kidnaps top-ranking Mossad intelligence officers in Israel’s elite class.”

The Arabic text went on to quote an unnamed Israeli intelligence officer who said that Israel had decided to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon as a result of the Mossad kidnappings.

Debunked myths and fake news stories Show all 25 1 /25 Debunked myths and fake news stories Debunked myths and fake news stories Nasa releases statement over rumours that asteroid will destroy Earth Nasa has just debunked a recent rumour of a giant asteroid due to crash into the Earth in September. Internet conspiracy theorists have been saying that an asteroid will hit our planet sometime between September 15 and 28, destroying the American continents. Acting in its role as space-news fact-checker, Nasa has issued a statement refuting the lot of it. "That’s the rumor that has gone viral – now here are the facts," it said in a press release entitled 'NASA: There is No Asteroid Threatening Earth' Alamy Debunked myths and fake news stories Video of scorned lover who cut ex's belongings in half was actually an advert for a law firm Revenge is a dish best served cold, or viral on YouTube as seemed to be the case for one German ex-husband who uploaded a video of himself using power tools to saw his possessions in half so he could literally give his former wife half of everything owned. The video, titled “For Laura”, quickly went viral reaching nearly 5.8 million views with the description “Thank you for 12 'beautiful' years, Laura! You've really earned half.” Although the course of true love never did run smooth, it did seem that the jilted lover was taking revenge to a whole new level with the angst-ridden video. Now, however, all has been explained. The video was not created by a jealous ex, but filmed by a media-savvy legal company looking to expand its customer base Youtube Debunked myths and fake news stories McDonald's claims the 'secret menu' is fake The rebuttal comes following an amusing spoof article, published by the Lucky Peach, seemingly offering a smorgasbord of hidden options for the discerning customer. Among the “delights” apparently on offer are the ‘Mommie Dearest’ (five burgers speared through with coat hangers) and the Burmese Python (complete with sock). Other options include the ‘the Derrida’ – a postmodern confection consisting of a raw potato and the remains of a few chips and a partially eaten bun PA Debunked myths and fake news stories Dead shark pictures might be fake Photographs of an enormous Tiger shark fished off the eastern Australian coast have emerged on social media. NSW newspaper The Northern Star claims the four metre catch was made by a local fisherman known only as “Matthew”. The images first emerged after Byron Bay resident Geoff Brooks posted them to his Facebook timeline. However, Mr Brooks has subsequently admitted he did not take the images – but continued to claim that the photographs are “real”. Social media users have criticised the images, with some claiming they are fake Geoff Brooks, via Facebook Debunked myths and fake news stories A fried rat had been served in KFC Facebook went into full "wtfffffffffffff" mode after a man posted a picture of what he claims was a fried rat he had been served in KFC. As news of the supposed Kentucky Fried rat was reported and spread, the incident took a dramatic turn with Dixon sealing it in a bag and freezing it as evidence. KFC has denied it is in the business of plunging rats into boiling hot oil however, and claims the whole thing is a 'hoax'. A DNA test followed, and shows that the nugget, although distinctly rodent-shaped, was just chicken all along. Devorise Dixon/Facebook Debunked myths and fake news stories British scientists clone dinosaur An extraordinary story of the world’s first cloned dinosaur got a lot of traction on Twitter and inspired alarmist comparisons to Jurassic Park in March this year. It was also, not unexpectedly, a complete fake, including completely fabricated quotations from 'experts' and a picture that is actually of a very young kangaroo. Debunked myths and fake news stories Mohammed Islam - A boy who 'made $72m' in his lunch break A New York schoolboy who reportedly made $72 million (£46 million) by trading stocks during his lunch breaks has admitted making the whole story up. Mohammed Islam, from Queens, originally told the New York Magazine he started dabbling in penny stocks aged just nine and developed a “life-long passion” for trading that was paying off. But in a later interview with the New York Observer, he said the whole story was fake and he had not made any money at all. Debunked myths and fake news stories World’s oldest tree has been accidentally chopped down by loggers in Peru Several websites carried the “news”, seemingly without realising the entire story appears to be a hoax. It first appeared on the World News Daily Report – a fake news website carrying articles including “Isis launches satellite” and “Pterodactyl sighting in New Guinea terrorises villagers”. Debunked myths and fake news stories Alex from Target has teenage girls swooning Alex from Target went from being a cute, Bieber-esque cashier to an Internet sensation in less than 24 hours with a little help from social media. The internet memes featuring the Texas teenager in his Target uniform flooded Twitter and the hashtag #AlexFromTarget, a reference to his employee tag, began trending as teen girls swooned over the 16-year old. The "cute checkout guy" photograph earned him 500,000 new Twitter followers and landed him an interview with the popular talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. Alex from Target, his full name is actually Alex Laboeuf, said he was overwhelmed and was surprised by his new found fame. But a Los Angeles start-up known as Breakr has claimed responsibility for the Alex from Target phenomenon that has taken the internet by storm - insisting it was part of an intricate marketing experiment. Debunked myths and fake news stories Ryan Gosling adopted a baby A Father's Day Facebook post from "Ryan Gosling" detailing how he adopted an orphaned baby for a year attracted Likes from almost one million users. This was despite it having all the hallmarks of a hoax, including a link for users to "save thousands of children and meet me while doing it" actually redirecting to the purchase page for a Gosling t-shirt. Facebook Debunked myths and fake news stories Macaulay Culkin dead hoax How to reassure the world you’re still alive after the internet reports that you’re dead? Fake your own murder on Instagram, like Macaulay Culkin. The actor posted the above image via his band Pizza Underground’s account yesterday, following several false rumours that he’d passed away. One particularly misleading story, originally posted on MSNBC.website (not to be confused with the real MSNBC), read: “Sources are reporting that Macaulay Culkin, best known for his role as Kevin McCallister in Home Alone and sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, has been found dead at the age of 34.” Debunked myths and fake news stories 'Crabzilla' - A fifty-foot crab dwelling somewhere off the English coast A satellite picture of the so-called crab, aptly dubbed ‘Crabzilla’, has gone viral after first surfacing on Weird Whitstable, a website for the supernatural curated by illustrator Quinton Winter, which deals in “phantoms, mysteries, tall tales, and artefacts”. The shadowy figure of a colossal crustacean, apparently spotted in the murky waters of Whistable, in Kent, dwarfs boats and cars on the pier it lurks besides. The invertebrate expert Paul Clark at the Natural History Museum in London has branded the photo a hoax. Photo courtesy of Weird Whitstable http://www.weirdwhitstable.co.uk Debunked myths and fake news stories Ebola 'risen from the dead' zombie story The story of dead Ebola victims rising from the dead, with the first "picture" of one of the zombies that has gone viral, (if it weren't glaringly obvious) is a hoax. The image on the article, while impressive, is in fact doctored picture of a zombie from the film World War Z. It appears to have taken an image of one of the film’s lab-zombies, and merged it with this picture of a “realistic movie sculpture” from Schell Studios, which the messageboard 8chan pointed out. Debunked myths and fake news stories 'Nasa Confirms Six Days of Darkness in December 2014' ‘Satirical news site’ Huzlers.com has been spreading fake story about upcoming six days of darkness, far and wide on the web, taking in numerous Facebook and Twitter users and encouraging them to post about what they’re going to be up to during the six days of darkness. The story on the vaguely official looking website titled “Nasa Confirms Earth Will Experience 6 Days of Total Darkness in December 2014!” claims that an incoming solar storm is to blame, causing "dust and space debris to become plentiful and thus block 90% sunlight”. This is false. Although solar storms certainly are real phenomena (they occur due to fluctuations in the Sun’s magnetic field) they’re not like terrestrial storms that can blow up dust and dirt. Reuters Debunked myths and fake news stories Meet Thea, Norway's 12-year-old child bride A Norwegian campaign highlighting the issue of child marriage has gained global attention after a blog seemingly written by a child bride-to-be went viral. The blog, apparently written by 12-year-old girl 'Thea', charts her thoughts and feelings towards her impending marriage to 37-year-old Geir. However, the blog was carefully created by Plan, an international aid organisation working on strengthening the girls’ rights, to bring home the issue of child brides. Courtesy of Plan Debunked myths and fake news stories Obsessive selfie-taking classified as a mental disorder An article claimed that the American Psychiatric Association (a real body) had classified new mental disorder “selfitis” as “the obsessive compulsive desire to take photos of one’s self and post them on social media”. The origin of the article should have tipped off readers, however - it first appeared on a site whose owners admit that “when writing [...] we spice it up with figments of our imagination”. Debunked myths and fake news stories Shipwrecked British woman saved by Google Earth The extraordinary story of Gemma Sheridan, a woman from Liverpool saved by Google Earth after seven years stranded on a desert island, whipped up a storm among social media users. Aside from the fairly incredible details involved in the story, a wide range of issues showed it is quite clearly a hoax - including pictures and whole swathes of text borrowed from other (real) reports. Digital Globe via Waffles at Noon Debunked myths and fake news stories Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is dead The Rock became the latest victim of a death hoax this month after rumours circulated that the action star had died while filming a dangerous stunt for the upcoming Fast and Furious 7 on Thursday. The bogus report was created by Global Associated News, a website responsible for some of the most outlandish recent fake celebrity deaths, and went viral on Twitter and Facebook. Getty Images Debunked myths and fake news stories Vaccines can cause autism A serious myth, this, and one which has repeatedly been rejected by scientific studies. The latest of these came earlier this year when a study that examined brain tissue samples donated by children who had died showed autism may actually develop in the womb during pregnancy. One scientist said the findings 'call sharply into questions other popular notions about autism'. Rex Features Debunked myths and fake news stories Homeopathic remedies have medicinal properties Proponents of homeopathy claim that it stimulates the body to heal itself, and is based on the principle of ‘like cures like’. But an Australian scientific body became the latest earlier this year to carry out a study showing that it actually works no better than a placebo. That story came after a homeopathic 'remedy' was actually recalled in the US because it contained traces of real medicine. Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Debunked myths and fake news stories Chinese child ruined father's passport This picture of a Chinese passport apparently defaced by a four-year-old boy went viral around the world, despite the fact that it seems to clearly be a hoax. The picture was originally posted on Chinese social networking site Weibo by a person claiming to be the father, known as Chen, with a plea for help. But from the uniform thickness of the lines (which actually go off the page to the right) to the covering-up of identifying details, the 'drawing' looks a lot like an adult’s handiwork on Photoshop or MS Paint Weibo Debunked myths and fake news stories MH370 was caused by aliens/Snowden/the Bermuda Triangle Since the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished on 8 March with 239 people on board, the story has sparked a host of myths and conspiracy theories. While some of these theories as to how the flight could have just disappeared have not been discounted by authorities, others have tended towards the unusual, bizarre and downright ridiculous. One Malaysian politician claimed the Bermuda Triangle must have moved to Vietnam. A 'citizen reporter' said radar picked up a UFO. Another said there was a complicated link to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. None are likely to be true. Reuters Debunked myths and fake news stories Chayson Basinio, 2, snatched from French supermarket Police in France investigated a report in April that a two-year-old boy had been kidnapped in the French town of Moulins. But they later called off their search operation after they discovered he only existed on social media. The 'aunt' who reported the disappearance of 'Chayson Basinio' was arrested for 'reporting an imaginary crime or offence'. AFP/Getty Images Debunked myths and fake news stories Morrissey joined Twitter Morrissey fans rejoiced earlier this week when the verified Twitter account @itsmorrissey posted its first tweet since joining in 2009, saying: 'Hello. Testing, 1, 2, 3. Planet Earth, are you there? One can only hope...' It seems that the Twitter blue tick seal of approval doesn’t mean as much as it used to, after Morrissey confirmed in a statement that he does not have an account on the social media site. Getty Images Debunked myths and fake news stories Chinese people ate doves at wedding, sued ugly wives and only sing numbers from takeaway menus In November last year, the western media was bombarded by a host of stories involving Chinese misrepresentations. One involved a Chinese man suing his wife 'because he was ugly' and winning - but was later debunked by an expat magazine in Shanghai. Here, Nyima Pratten writes about how our media depict Chinese people in an unreasonably negative way. Getty Images

“We will not be responsible for the results because of the Lebanese people’s embrace of the Hezbollah terrorist,” the falsified quote read.

While the language of the supposed news alert – not wholly written in a dry news tone, and missing several elements of a typical news story – was an obvious fake to anyone with media literacy, the content is worrying.

It’s not clear how many people received it, whether there’s an identifying strand between the recipients of occupation, class, geography – and perhaps most alarmingly, where it came from.

It could be the work of a prankster who got hold of a subscription list, or bigger actors, with more ambitious motives, could be involved. Without knowing the intended audience, it is impossible to identify the sender.

The Israeli intelligence services are far too sophisticated to ever fall for a fake news story such as the Mossad kidnap text, said Ben Nimmo, an information defence Fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

But Hezbollah’s secretive intel agency is unlikely to be as well resourced or staffed – and the text has similarities with “pinpoint propaganda”, which Mr Nimmo’s research has found in Ukraine to be information warfare akin to a “high-tech version of dropping leaflets onto enemy battlefields”.

Edward Snowden addresses Facebook fake news claims

In the Dombas, threatening SMS messages are periodically sent to the phones of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers, in the hopes they will be intimated into deserting their positions. While the source is without a shadow of a doubt Russia, the texts originate from traceless cell site simulators, which impersonate local mobile telephone signal masts.

There is no incentive for a new Hezbollah-Israel war on either side – both the Lebanese militant group and the Jewish state are deeply preoccupied with the war in bordering Syria – but all it might take is the wrong official or unit stationed on the border to receive, and believe, a similar message for all hell to break loose.

After all, it’s anchored in a realistic – and therefore believable – context: the necessary conditions for the 2006 war were fanned by a number of unsuccessful Hezbollah attempts to kidnap Israeli soldiers in 2005.

“The most powerful [fake news reports] are those that rely on something existing and then diverge from the truth,” Dr Rickli said.

“It is the same mechanism as lies – the most powerful ones are those that are building on something real.”

There are several conflicts in the Middle East which already run hot. But what we may be seeing, given recent events, is the emergence of fake news tactics which are not just aimed at sowing confusion and distrust among populations, but influencing events on a state level.

The current diplomatic crisis in the Gulf is a case in point: the three-month-old standoff sprung, in part, from the publication of a false news story planted by hackers on a Qatari news agency.

At the time, Qatar said that how quickly its neighbours picked up on the fake comments about Iran and Israel from Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani – and the fact several regional outlets kept running the false remarks even after Qatar had issued a statement explaining the hack – showed that something was amiss.

Recently divulged US intelligence appears to back up Qatar’s allegation the story was planted by its regional rivals: officials believe that senior members of the UAE’s government discussed the planned hacks on 23 May, the day before they occurred, and either carried out the cyber attack themselves or used a third party.

An earlier FBI investigation found that the hack was the work of Russian hackers – whether they were from the government, or freelancers hired by a third party, is unknown.

The Gulf dispute is ongoing, and its huge geopolitical implications are yet to be fully understood.

If the US intel is correct, this is an instance of fake news being used to directly influence events in the Middle East.

“[Creating] ‘alternative realities’ is the ultimate goal of post-truth politics,” Dr Rickli said.