BICOM

A large network of fake social media accounts is amplifying Likud messages and smearing political rivals, according to two reports.

Ronen Bergman and Inbar Tvizer in Yediot Ahronoth and the New York Times reported that a study by the Big Bots Project says hundreds of fake Twitter accounts correspond with one another — liking and retweeting one another’s posts — and with several prominent accounts that are associated with senior Likud officials and the Prime Minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu.

According to the study: “On peak days the network writes thousands of posts every day on behalf of Netanyahu and the Likud. One can clearly see that it was massively ‘operated’ after the election was called, and its activity is irregular relative to control groups with users who were chosen randomly. From the moment elections were called up until this report was written, that network posted more than 130,000 tweets. The network is enlisted at peak moments on behalf of Netanyahu, such as when the indictments against Netanyahu were announced, the prime minister’s interview to Hahadashot, and at Blue and White’s campaign launch.”

The study was written by Noam Rotem and Yuval Adam, founders of the Big Bots Project, which monitors attempts to make malicious use of social networks, and the Israeli Alliance. The study was financed through online crowdsourcing.

Whilst the report failed to find evidence of a direct link between the Likud, any employee of the Likud or Yair Netanyahu and the covert campaign, it suggests that the activity of the secret network, which the Big Bots Project estimate received 2.5 million hits, may be in violation of election propaganda laws, campaign financing laws, false representation laws, privacy law and tax laws.

On Sunday night, Channel 13 News reported a leaked recording of Benny Gantz suggesting he would serve in a Netanyahu-led government. Gantz said in the recording: “Let’s say that he wins the election, a week later (US President Donald) Trump puts forward a (peace) plan and the people of Israel look at Benny Gantz and say, ‘Come, let’s shield Netanyahu,’ because otherwise (far-right MK Bezalel) Smotrich will kill the last option (we have) to do something.”

Channel 12 reported yesterday that Gantz has asked the Shin Bet security agency to examine whether the Mossad intelligence agency was behind the leak that revealed his mobile phone had been hacked by Iran.