NYT: Israeli ministry targets US lawmakers with fake pro-Israel social media accounts

A New York Times investigation has found that Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs organised and paid for an influence campaign last year targeting US lawmakers and the American public with "pro-Israel messaging", and calls for supporting Israel amid the war on Gaza.

The report finds that the ministry allocated about $2m to the operation and hired Stoic, a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv, to carry it out.

At its peak, the campaign used hundreds of fake accounts posing as real Americans on X, Facebook and Instagram to post pro-Israel comments.

The campaign focused on US lawmakers, particularly those who are Black and Democrats, such as "Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader from New York, and Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, with posts urging them to continue funding Israel’s military".

ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, was used to generate many of the posts. The campaign also created three English-language news sites publishing pro-Israel content.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has "disrupted the operation" since last week, according to the Times.