Title: Israel’s Covert Influence Campaign Targeting U.S. Lawmakers Exposed
Israel has been revealed to have organized and funded a secret influence campaign targeting U.S. lawmakers and the American public with pro-Israel messaging. The campaign, commissioned by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and carried out by the political marketing firm Stoic, aimed to garner support for Israel’s actions in the war with Gaza.
Using fake accounts on various social media platforms, including X, Facebook, and Instagram, the campaign posed as real Americans to post pro-Israel comments. The accounts focused on U.S. lawmakers, particularly Black Democrats like Representative Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Raphael Warnock, urging them to continue funding Israel’s military.
The use of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, helped generate many of the posts for the campaign. Additionally, three fake English-language news sites were created to publish pro-Israel articles.
The Israeli government’s involvement in the operation, which was verified by officials and documents, had not been previously reported. The campaign was eventually discovered by FakeReporter, an Israeli misinformation watchdog, and disrupted by Meta and OpenAI.
The revelation of this covert campaign sheds light on the lengths Israel was willing to go to influence American opinion on the war in Gaza. While the impact of the campaign was limited, it marks the first documented case of the Israeli government organizing such an effort to influence the U.S. government.
Critics have called Israel’s actions reckless and irresponsible, with the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs denying any involvement in the campaign. Stoic, the firm hired to run the operation, did not respond to requests for comment.
Despite efforts to remove accounts and pages associated with the campaign, some posts still remain on social media platforms. The use of artificial intelligence in political campaigns is a growing concern, with Stoic promoting its ability to run campaigns backed by AI.
The exposure of this influence campaign highlights the complex and evolving landscape of digital manipulation and foreign interference in politics.
