Twitter network employing fake users to boost Netanyahu: Israeli watchdog

An Israeli watchdog group has discovered a network of hundreds of fake social media accounts used to wage an online smear campaign against political rivals of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of next week’s April 9 elections, the New York Times reported Sunday.  

Following the report’s exposure, Netanyahu’s chief election rival, the Blue & White centrist alliance led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, called a press conference, with Gantz accusing the prime minister of "trying to steal the elections" by conducting a "terror of consciousness" campaign against the Israeli citizenry.

“There’s a whole infrastructure here paid for with big money…an infrastructure Netanyahu is using to steal the election,” he said. 

The former IDF chief called for police to investigate the pro-Netanyahu social media network's funding and demanded that the Central Elections Committee order the "immediate cessation of this ugly fake news campaign."

The Big Bots Project, an independent watchdog organization which works to expose the use of social media for malicious purposes, released a report on Monday showing links between the network and Netanyahu’s Likud party and his re-election campaign. 

While Netanyahu was not directly linked to the network, the report said Twitter and Facebook messages promoting the premier and slamming his rivals were often reposted by leading Likud campaign officials as well as the Israeli premier's son, Yair Netanyahu. 

“The network operates through manipulations, slander, lies and spreading rumors,” the report stated. “On its busiest days, the network sends out thousands of tweets a day.”

Since early elections for Israel’s parliament were called in December, the watchdog said the network's activity intensified five-fold. 

The profiles further ramped up their smear campaigns at times of scandal and other significant political events. 

The network “is mobilized at climactic moments for Netanyahu, such as the announcement of the indictment against him,” the watchdog found. 

"Netanyahu is going to lose, Netanyahu is stressed," said Gantz at the opening of the event held at the Expo. "The investigation revealed this morning that Netanyahu is leading a campaign of conscious terror against the citizens of Israel."

"I do not worry about myself, I stood up to pressure, I made difficult decisions, I am less worried. Netanyahu can badmouth me as much as he likes. I'm determined, I'm going to win," Gantz added resolutely. 

Since Benny Gantz emerged as Netanyahu’s chief election rival, the network's activity allegedly zeroed in on the former IDF chief, producing a number of false rumors which were then circulated throughout social media.

The network appears to work in collaboration with one another; when one user posts a false rumor, a number of other users swiftly repost the lie. 

Lies spread through the network about the ex-general include claims he sexually harassed an American woman-- a rumor which surfaced the same day the Israeli attorney general was to announce his intention to indict Netanyahu in three separate cases on corruption and bribery charges. 

Over 130,000 posts have been published by the network-- all in Hebrew-- and collectively have accrued over 2.5 million hits according to report estimates. 

"On April 9th the 'bots' will flock to the polls"

Dismissing the allegations, Netanyahu released a campaign video on Monday morning poking fun at the report, suggesting there were so many Likud supporters that it looked as if there were bots campaigning for him. 

Netanyahu addressed his supporters, or "bots" as he called them: "They do not believe how many ‘bots’ are operating in Likud. There were 986,408 Likud voters in the 2015 elections. Ballot after ballot, from soldier after soldier...on April 9th the bots will flock to the polls.” 

Meanwhile, a number of the alleged bots came forward claiming in media interviews to be real people with legitimate social networks, and denied receiving any sort of remuneration from the Likud party.

The Likud party on Sunday also denied it was running a network of fake accounts. 

“All of the Likud’s digital activity is entirely authentic and is based on the great support of the citizens of Israel for Prime Minister Netanyahu and the great achievements of the Likud,” Likud spokesman Jonathan Urich told the Times. 

The report zones in on a number of individual accounts. For example, “Moshe” who in recent months began tweeting multiple times a day, almost always messages with political content in favor of Israel’s right-wing Likud and Netanyahu. 

For the first three months in 2018, “Moshe” tweeted 16 times, Israeli daily Ynet said. In the first three months of 2019, Moshe tweeted 2,856 times as Israel was was deeply enthralled in the election cycle for the 21st Knesset.  

Further, the handsome young face which occupies Moshe’s profile picture is actually that of a Greek model named Theo Theodoridis. 

The watchdog’s report said the network may be violating Israeli election laws pertaining to campaign finance and taxation. 

The report alleges that 154 of the accounts in the network use fake names, while an additional 400 accounts are suspected of being fake. 

As the accounts seem to be operated by real users instead of bots, the report said this makes the accounts much harder to be detected as fake profiles. 

After the report emerged on Sunday, "Moshe" took to Twitter to mock the claims. 

"You see friends, I am a bot according to Yedioth Ahronoth (referring to Ynet). I am going on FM 103 with Yinon Magal and Anat Davidoff. You all understand, all of Likud's supporters are bots."

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