A journalist at the Times of Israel says he faced severe personal threats after reporting an Iranian missile strike near Beit Shemesh. Emmanuel Fabian, 28, published a brief post confirming a missile landed in an open area, causing no injuries. Soon after, he received messages warning him to revise his report or face consequences.
The threats were tied to online gamblers who had bet on Polymarket, a prediction market, over whether an Iranian missile would strike Israel on March 10. Millions of dollars were at stake. One message read: “You have 90 minutes left to update the lie. If you do this… you won’t remember me anymore in a week." Other messages threatened Fabian and his family if he did not comply.
Fabian said the pressure briefly made him consider changing the wording, which would have allowed some bettors to profit. “I thought, ‘Do I just change it? Because it doesn’t really matter,’" he told The Washington Post. Yet he ultimately chose to uphold his reporting and filed a police complaint.
Polymarket condemned the harassment, banned the accounts involved, and pledged to share information with authorities. The company blocked the accounts of the users involved in the threats and announced that it would cooperate with law enforcement and provide them with the relevant information.
Fabian said he hoped publicizing the incident would deter similar threats. Analysts say the episode highlights the risks prediction markets create when real-world events intersect with online betting, placing journalists under pressure to alter factual reporting for financial gain.
Fabian emphasized that he did not change his report despite the pressure and expressed concern that similar cases could put undue pressure on journalists in the future.