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The Meteoric Rise of Jackson Hinkle on X: How Hateful Influencer Became Internet’s Biggest Hamas Fanboy
Elon Musk, chief executive officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X/Twitter, gestures as he attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, France, June 16, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
On the morning of the brutal October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, social media influencer Jackson Hinkle had 417,000 followers on his X (formerly Twitter) account.
Describing himself as an “American Conservative Marxist-Leninist” — in perhaps the clearest indicator of his muddled and inconsistent political views — Hinkle initially rose to prominence online as a peddler of pro-Russia disinformation.
Just two months after the Hamas attack, the number of people following Hinkle’s conspiratorial and, more often than not, incoherent ramblings on X has mushroomed to 2.3 million.
It’s a staggering jump that is not only earning Hinkle a tidy amount of money in advertising as a content creator on the Elon Musk-owned platform, but is largely thanks to Hamas and supporters of the terrorist organization.
Perhaps sensing a money-making opportunity in the days that followed the horrifying attack, Hinkle went into conspiracy overdrive and began pumping out anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda on an almost industrial scale.
His sudden pro-Palestinian pivot bears all the hallmarks of rank opportunism, particularly the zeal with which Hinkle has latched himself onto a cause that appears to have little to no personal effect — and that before October 7, you could count the number of times on one hand that Hinkle had posted about Israel or the Palestinians.
By now, @muhammadshehad2, @jacksonhinklle and @PalestineNW know this is a lie.
Videos have been released showing him leaving the prison with 2 healthy arms.
But the truth is not on their side so they hide behind the lies and hope you believe them. Don’t be their useful idiot. https://t.co/2EZNOTkGm7
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 29, 2023
Yet Hinkle’s shallow concern for the Palestinians has not prevented his meteoric social media rise, which has seen him push ever more dangerous conspiracies and lies as the Israel-Hamas war continues.
While there are almost too many flagrant instances of him sharing disinformation about Israel’s battle against Hamas to count, Hinkle appears to “specialize” in sharing outright fake pieces of information, including doctored and computer-generated imagery.
For example, he recently posted an image of suspected Hamas terrorists who had been rounded up and arrested by Israel alongside an image of ISIS terrorists about to execute several jumpsuit-clad hostages, with the obvious inference that Israel is summarily executing suspected terrorists.
On another occasion, Hinkle shared what he claimed was footage of Israel bombing Gaza’s Al-Sadaqa Hospital, which BBC fact-checker Olga Robinson later showed was CCTV from a hospital in Syria, and was at least seven years old.
This is not a hospital in Gaza being bombed.
This is old footage from Syria and completely unrelated to the current conflict. pic.twitter.com/GCCtyyy3sz
— Olga Robinson (@O_Rob1nson) November 1, 2023
Hinkle also seems to care very little about being exposed as a liar, having posted content that can be disproved with a mere click.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz took him to task after an October 28 post by Hinkle “attempted a wholesale appropriation of Haaretz’s name and coverage to support a range of baseless conspiracy theories.”
“He opened with a breathless claim: ‘Haaretz investigation EXPOSES all the ISRAELI LIES from October 7th (just like I predicated).’,” Haaretz noted. “There was just one problem: there is no such Haaretz investigation. Indeed, Hinkle didn’t even try to corroborate his hyperbolic headline with any hyperlinks to Haaretz at all.”
This post contains blatant lies about the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. It has absolutely no basis in Haaretz’s reporting, then or sincehttps://t.co/ukDnVVyihm https://t.co/GX8cRIpX81
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) October 28, 2023
Hinkle has also been outspoken in his support for Hamas, which he has refused to admit is a terrorist organization, and for the Assad regime in Syria.
During October, Hinkle posted his support for Bashar al-Assad on numerous occasions, including describing the Syrian dictator as a “hero” and denying the fact chemical weapons were used by the Syrian army on civilians.
In another bizarre post that encouraged his supporters to donate for him to “expose Zionist lies,” Hinkle uploaded a photoshopped image of himself with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and claimed they both “stand with Palestine.”
The so-called “community notes” feature on X, which allows readers to add context to posts, has prevented Hinkle’s most outrageous examples of fake news from going unchallenged.
They include him calling on his millions of followers to boycott the newest Grand Theft Auto video game on the grounds it is “Haram Zionist propaganda” — a conclusion Hinkle seemingly arrived at after coloring the logo of the company behind GTA, Rockstar Games, blue so he could suggest that it bears a resemblance to the Star of David on the Israeli flag.
While Hinkle is far from alone in profiting off the Israel-Hamas war as he builds a career for himself as an influencer, the fact that he is profiting off pumping out fake news is simply staggering.
Elon Musk has promised to help tackle the proliferation of fake news and propaganda on X by demonetizing content creators who are responsible.
One such tool, he announced in October, would be preventing any posts that are fact-checked with the “community notes” feature from earning revenue — something that has apparently already prompted Hinkle to delete numerous posts.
However, such measures do not go nearly far enough.
A study released last month by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) showed that X remains a digital sink of hate speech, with the study examining posts made following the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Its findings indicated that 96 percent of all posts that were reported for hate speech remained on the website for a week after being flagged.
And it is this abject failure of supine social media magnates like Elon Musk that have allowed Hinkle and his ilk to build careers peddling falsehoods.
In eight weeks of war that has seen horrifying bloodshed and led to countless lost lives, the Jackson Hinkles of the world are profiting without any concern for the real-world implications of their lies.
This has to stop now.
The post The Meteoric Rise of Jackson Hinkle on X: How Hateful Influencer Became Internet’s Biggest Hamas Fanboy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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