Israel organized and paid for an influencer campaign targeting US lawmakers and the American public, The New York Times reported.
According to the Times, the 2023 campaign targeted the American public and its lawmakers with pro-Israel messaging, with the goal of fostering support for Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.
Officials involved told the Times that the campaign was commissioned by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, headed by Minister Amichai Chikli. Both documents and officials said that the Ministry allocated $2 million to the operation and hired a political marketing firm in Tel Aviv, Stoic, to carry it out.
The campaign, which began in October 2023, still remains active on X. It included hundreds of fake accounts on X, Facebook, and Twitter, in which those behind the accounts posed as Americans and posted pro-Israel comments. Many of the posts were generated by ChatGPT.
In addition, the campaign created three fake English-language news sites featuring pro-Israel articles.
In March, the Israeli misinformation watchdog Fake Reporter identified the effort. Last week, Meta, which owns both Facebook and Instagram, and OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT, said that they identified and disrupted the operation.
The AI operation is the first verified case of an Israeli government campaign influencing the US government, according to social media experts. However, in 2015, the US State Department provided funds to an activist group which spearheaded an anti-Likud campaign in an attempt to influence the results of Israel's elections. The State Deparment later claimed that it did not know the funding would be used to influence Israeli elections.
Despite the campaign's efforts, Meta and OpenAI have both said that the campaign did not have widespread impact, though it had over 40,000 followers across the platforms. Many of those followers, however, may have been bots.
Over a dozen members of Congress, many of whom are Democrats and Black, were targeted in the campaign, FakeReporter said. The fake news sites stole and rewrote material from major media outlets. Fake accounts on Reddit then linked to the articles on the so-called news sites to help promote them.
Achiya Schatz, FakeReporter's executive director, told the Times, "Israel’s role in this is reckless and probably ineffective. He added that the fact that Israel "ran an operation that interferes in U.S. politics is extremely irresponsible."
Last week, Meta and OpenAI reported the campaign and attributed it to Stoic. Meta said that it removed 510 Facebook accounts, 11 Facebook pages, 32 Instagram accounts, and one Facebook group. Open AI claimed that Stoic created fictional personas and biographies. Many of the posts are still visible on X, the Times noted.
The Diaspora Affairs Ministry has denied both involvement and connection to Stoic. Stoic and X have not responded to requests for comment.