The Diaspora Affairs Ministry paid last year for a campaign using fake social media accounts to target US lawmakers and the American public with pro-Israel messaging, The New York Times reports, citing four current and former members of the ministry, and documents on the activities.
The campaign was launched in order to garner public support for the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza. It was first reported on by Israeli media watchdog FakeReporter in March, but The Times report links the effort directly to the government.
Tel Aviv marketing firm Stoic was paid $2 million by the ministry to carry out the operation, which, at its height, used hundreds of accounts posing as Americans to make posts, that focused on Black and Democratic representatives with calls to continue to approve military aid to Israel, the report says.
AI chatbot ChatGPT was used to create posts, which included three fake English-language news sites with pro-Israel articles, according to the report.
Social media firm Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has “disrupted the operation” since last week, The Times reports.
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Wednesday, June 5, 2024
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