Israel may have used fake social media accounts to influence US lawmakers
The Israeli Embassy is not participating in a campaign to attack the US government on social media: Comments on the TikTok Disruption Campaign
While not as attention-grabbing as influence operations from adversaries such as China, Iran and Russia, Israel has been trying to influence the American public via digital media for years, said Aouragh, who has written about Israel’s public diplomacy efforts termed hasbara, or “to explain” in Hebrew.
Politicians often try to manipulate public opinion on social media. TikTok reported that it disrupted more than a dozen campaigns on its platform, including one that originated in China. But the Times notes this is the first time the Israeli government has been found to be coordinating a campaign targeting the US government.
The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs didn’t immediately respond to the request for comment. The Times reports that the office denied involvement in the campaign. The Times says details of the network of accounts came from internal documents and individuals involved in the campaign.
According to the Times, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs earmarked around $2 million for the campaign, which used hundreds of fake accounts impersonating made up people to target US lawmakers. The accounts posed as Americans and posted pro-Israel messages, calling on members of congress to fund Israeli military operations. The campaigns targeted several Black Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
The minister of diaspora affairs in Israel denied an influence campaign. He accused FakeReporter of “slander against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel.” STOIC did not respond to interview requests from NPR.
One site argues that American universities are not safe for Jewish students, while another states that being part of a mass movement is worse than advocating for some of the worst social structures in the world. The websites share the same IP address, suggesting common ownership.
“Doing it against the U.S. is just simply stupid,” says Achiya Schatz, FakeReporter’s CEO. “Israelis should be worried because we can find ourselves easily targeted by these kinds of tools. I don’t trust these kinds of tools in the hands of anyone.”
An analysis of online influence campaigns against the Palestinians and black Americans in the United Kingdom, according to an Israeli anthropologist in the UK
The website’s publicly available source code is explicit in mentioning the company’s internet domain name, “stoico,” according to researchers. The profile of the GitHub user is no longer accessible, but online search results are.
DFRLab said the fake accounts mostly interacted with other fake accounts. Meta has deleted accounts from both Facebook andInstagram before they gained popularity.
The campaigns aimed to drive a wedge between the Palestinians and the Black Americans, according to an anthropologist in the United Kingdom.
“Different oppressed groups are reciprocating the solidarity and the affinity that they have felt in the shared sense of oppression,” said Aouragh. She says that the influence campaigns are trying to break the unity.
“Framing Islam around the world as the problem is not something that our state’s supposed to be involved with,” said Schatz. “It’s promoting hate and promoting fear and promoting messages that, at the end of the day, I’m embarrassed by.”
Source: A covert Israeli online influence campaign tried to sway American lawmakers
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These reports were released last week by Meta, and this week by Fake Reporter. Both companies said they had taken down fake accounts tied to STOIC. OpenAI said STOIC used their tools to generate articles and comments that the fake accounts then used to distribute.
Back in 2009, an official from Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told an Israeli newspaperthat the department was establishing a team to promote Israel and specifically to rally international support in the wake of Israel’s war on Gaza that year, known as Operation Cast Lead. The department hired people who spoke foreign languages like English to write messages on social media. The official cited influencing Americans as an example, and also said those workers did not have to identify themselves as working on behalf of the Israeli government.
The main funders of Israel are the countries that hasbara has traditionally been targeting. Aouragh told NPR that it was Europe and North America. In America, she says, the common narratives include using anti-semitism or the idea of Arab terrorists.
In the Gulf countries, Aouragh says, hasbara calls for people to focus on their own affairs instead of Palestine. Is it not important for you to worry about your own financial problems, conflicts, and wars?
Social media influence campaigns are just one of the many ways hasbara operates, but Schatz said spreading disinformation should not be used recklessly during wartime.
“If you give legitimacy to an act that’s at its core, you’re pushing people’s decision-making away from reality, and that’s anti-democratic.” They’re done by countries that aren’t democratic. Such as Russia or Iran. I do not know why we should be part of it.
Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs earmarked around 17 crore for a TikTok campaign that targeted US lawmakers, media reports have claimed. The accounts posed as American citizens and posted pro-Israel messages, calling on Congress to fund Israel’s military operations. Israel’s Foreign Affairs Minister said the embassy was not taking part in the TikTok campaign and spreading disinformation should not be used recklessly.