A research organization by the name of "Fake Reporter" has found a wide ranging plot in cyber space, apparently sponsored by Iran, to expand the social stresses in Israel and to gather information.
Their research found that this outside factor operated on many platforms and included many fictitious social presences and discussion groups and phony web sites that worked to deepen social division and to spread fake news. They spread fake news about election fraud, comments extremely critical of the chareidi community and other communities, and fake accounts that pretended to be journalists, politicians and well-known rabbonim.
Recently they deepened their efforts and in particular tried to intervene with the families of the hostages and contacted prominent activists.
In the course of their activities, they opened seven phony accounts on social media in the name of famous rabbonim and other influencers. Among others there are fake accounts that pretend to be HaRav Avigdor Nevenzahl shlita, HaRav Reuven Elbaz shlita and HaRav Shlomo Moshe Amar. Even the choice of these personalities indicates the deep familiarity that those who stand behind the campaign have with the Israeli society.
These fake accounts have between hundreds to even thousands of followers. For example, the fake account of HaRav Elbaz has about 5,000 followers! The account of HaRav Amar only has about a hundred followers. These fake accounts are still operative.
The fake account of HaRav Amar is particularly worthy of note since it includes sound bites, including fake recordings purporting to be the Rav attacking the non-religious Israeli community and even calls for removing the right to vote from women. One who is familiar with HaRav Amar and his style can detect slight differences in the voice and some mistakes in pronunciation, but those who are less familiar might well be taken in and believe these false messages are really from the Rav.
One of the most popular productions of this network is a false video that deals with Rav Chaim Druckman zt'l who passed away about a year ago in December 2022. Two weeks after his passing a video went viral of protesters against the judicial reform appearing to burn a picture of Rav Druckman while blocking the Ayalon highway. The video clip reached a large audience and was reported in the mainstream media.
"During the elections of November 2022 we found a lot of suspicious activity on the Internet," says Achiya Shatz, head of the Fake Reporting organization. "We saw a fake screenshot of Yair Netanyahu appearing to say that Gantz and Lapid charge that the election was stolen. It was strange since we investigated and found that Yair Netanyahu never said any such thing. We found that the screenshot was being spread by an account named Omer Shover, which is the name of a real Israeli journalist. We found that someone was pretending to be him, and that his account was linked to a bunch of other fake accounts.
"When we followed the trail we found and entire network of fake accounts of people and organizations. We uncovered a large amount of fake accounts that were linked to each other and all of whom tried to spread various fake messages that would deepen the internal divisions and drive people to extremes."
How did this network operate?
"They used fake organizations that they made up and worked simultaneously from two directions," says Shatz. "On the one hand they worked among the general Israel society, and on the other hand they concentrated on chareidi rabbonim. Look, they are not fully conversant with chareidi society. But they faked accounts of chareidi rabbonim from various streams. These rabbonim do not have an Internet presence, and they were able to create accounts in their names."
What kind of content did these foreign agents spread?
"From these accounts they created and spread all kinds of statements and video clips that appeared to come from these rabbonim and included insults and criticism of the non-religious Israeli society. They also did the same thing on the other side. They pretended to be various liberal organizations and issued messages critical of chareidi society. They were true agents of chaos. They tried to pit everyone against everyone. They tried to attract followers and to contact various people to supply them with information and to do their bidding."
How long has this been going on?
"This network has been operating, in various forms, for more than two years. They were active during the elections, and since them during the demonstrations against the government. We felt that it is important to expose them and to inform people that these kind of things are taking place."
What made you first notice these things?
"We have been working against malicious activities on the Internet for more than three years. We have uncovered more than 20 fake networks. We have tools and we have experience to analyze and detect anomalies and to uncover them and to prove that they are malicious. We take a lot of factors into account that indicate to us that something is fake. We often work with the press to bring things to the notice of the public but we sometimes take action on the Internet itself."
Is there anyway to prevent this kind of activity?
"There are steps that can be taken. For one, there should be more regulation. There are no laws about this in Israel. All over the world there are initiatives to make the Internet safer, but nothing is being done so far in Israel.
"If someone has stolen my identity, or created a fake account in my name, I have no one to complain to. The police do nothing with this.
We call upon the government to take action in this area."
