Gaza conflict plays out online

>> and both sides have aggressively tried to control the narrative using twitter, blogs, and even youtube . when the israeli military began in offensive last week, it immediately posted this video on youtube of the air strike that killed that top hamas leader as well as a block post explaining why he was targeted. this prompted "forbes" to write this may be the first war declared via twitter. palestinian activists have been actively posting pictures of the dead and wounded. "newsweek" and "the daily beast " correspondent is covering the ongoing social media war here. mike, thanks for joining us.

>> thank you.

>> let's first talk about and you mentioned the "forbes" article in your piece, the first war declared via twitter. we've seen this many times, a green revolution , especially the impact twitter can have to get word out about what's going on.

>> i think what you're seeing here that's interesting is a state, israel , do it's own very active twitter campaigns, and they've devoted a lot of resources, i think, to making sure that their social media footprint on this conflict and on foreign relations generally is pretty strong.

>> just some of the messages going out. israel defense forces tweeted a warning to militants saying we recommend that no hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their face above grounds in these days. some of the information that's been going out via twitter from israel has been seen negatively by those outside the region. what's your perspective of how it's being used? go ahead?

>> i think a message like that, first of all, is clearly more tailors to the international community because it's tweeted in english. it was pretty randomly mocked. my favorite comment on twitter was, won't it make it harder to kill them? i think they're taking pains to show they're trying to avoid civilian casualties , which is what they do for a long time. at the same time i think they're also trying to scare hamas into backing down. i don't think israel wants a ground war on this. they want the ruockets to stop.

>> the response -- we said at the bottom of our screen, real life twitter wars. we usually talk about twitter wars, but when you have hamas responding to a specific message on twitter from israel , i mean, how do we even process that?

>> i think you're right. it's easy to not take it seriously. i think when you look at the other side of this conflict or twitter war, don't look at has hamas . their social media presence is negligible and awkward. the palestinian activists are really the other front in this. you know, they're taking it and making a serious effort to document civilian casualties and to upload photos and videos on twitter and on facebook and on youtu youtube . they're doing a good job getting their message across. when you talk to them, they think they're winning that battle.

>> when you mention getting their message across in a good job, is it changing minds and informing people or just having it out there in this universe that so many much us exist in with social media ?

>> i think talking to them, you know, there's a sense that their message never gets out. if they feel ignored and now people pay attention to videos and photos, they see that as a win. it's a good point you just made. i spoke to a gaza-based journalist who said it's a problem for me. i spent half my time trying to track down the different pieces of information on twitter from the activists. it's false and you can waste effort that way. it's good and bad for people trying to convey a more conventional and serious message.

>> thank you for your time.