Israel Used Fake Social Accounts to Influence U.S. Lawmakers

The Israeli government orchestrated an influence campaign aimed at U.S. lawmakers and the American public to secure support for its actions in the Gaza war, according to a New York Times report on Wednesday.

The report, based on information from four unnamed officials, indicated that the campaign was executed by Stoic, a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv, under the direction of the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. The campaign employed “hundreds of fake accounts posing as real Americans” to disseminate pro-Israel content across various social media platforms, including X, Facebook, and Instagram.

These fake accounts particularly targeted Black Democratic lawmakers such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), urging them to continue funding Israel’s military efforts. The Times noted that the campaign is still active on X, utilizing content generated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Last week, both Meta and OpenAI issued separate threat assessment reports revealing their actions against covert influence operations by Stoic. Meta’s quarterly threat report stated that it had removed 510 accounts, 11 pages, one group on Facebook, and 32 Instagram accounts originating from Israel for “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” These accounts pretended to be “Jewish students, African Americans, and ‘concerned’ citizens,” posting in English about the Gaza war. The content praised the Israeli military, criticized the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and claimed that “radical Islam” threatened “liberal values in Canada.” Meta linked this activity to Stoic, which has been banned from its platforms and issued a cease-and-desist order.

OpenAI’s report indicated that Stoic used its AI tools to create and edit anti-Hamas, anti-Qatar, and pro-Israel content. The operation ran multiple campaigns connected to the Gaza conflict and the relations between Jewish and Muslim communities.

Meta’s report highlighted that Stoic’s network “commented on Facebook Pages of international and local media organizations, as well as political and public figures, including U.S. lawmakers. Their comments included links to the operation’s websites and often faced critical responses from genuine users calling them propaganda.”

A former Meta engineer, Ferras Hamad, has filed a lawsuit against the company in a California state court, alleging that he was terminated for attempting to resolve bugs that suppressed Palestinian posts on Instagram, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Hamad, who is Palestinian-American, claimed the company exhibited bias in its handling of Gaza-related content. The lawsuit also accused Meta of workplace discrimination against Palestinians, including the deletion of internal communications where employees discussed the deaths of their relatives in Gaza or used the Palestinian flag emoji.