NEW YORK, (PIC)
Israel organized a campaign secretly targeting US lawmakers and the American public with pro-Israel content through hundreds of fake social media accounts to build support for its war on the Gaza Strip, according to a New York Times (NYT) report.
NYT, citing unnamed officials and documents, reported that the campaign, which started in October last year, was commissioned by Israel’s ministry of diaspora affairs, which connects Jews from other countries with the Israeli government, adding that this campaign is still active on X, formerly Twitter.
Many of the posts were generated by ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, and included content urging lawmakers to continue funding Israel’s army and its military operations in Gaza, according to the NYT.
The Israeli ministry earmarked about $2 million to the social media operation and hired “Stoic,” a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv, to carry it out, according to the officials and documents.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research organization, said last week that they disrupted some of those fake social media accounts linked to a for-profit organization in Israel.
