In 2012, with the global rise of social media and the Arab world in particular, the University of Oxford began a research project into strange phenomena that were being observed across different platforms. Thousands of accounts — seemingly unrelated to each other — would publish posts that contained very similar wording, almost at the same time. [1]
The project investigated the use of algorithms, automation, and computational propaganda in public life, as well as political bots manipulating public opinion over major social networking applications. [1]
Much like any propaganda, this typically involves misdirection and the promotion of false information. So, how has this been applied in the current genocide, and what kind of success is it yielding?
Past Israeli efforts have been a failure
In July 2021, Ronen Manelis, the former spokesman of the Israeli army, was interviewed on the Hebrew Channel 11. He discussed Israel’s failure in the media and narrative sphere, referring to it as the “hashtag war”. [2]
This was in light of the then-recent Battle of Sayf al-Quds. Ronen noted the social media avalanche in support of Palestine under the hashtag #gazaunderattack, which gained millions of reposts and achieved massive traction. [2]
Manelis compared that with #israelunderattack, which achieved comparatively poor traction. He lamented Israel’s lack of control against a Palestinian narrative. [2]
Likewise, an article by the Israeli TheMarker newspaper details the statistics during the Battle of Sayf al-Quds and presents that for every one million tweets in support of Gaza, there were roughly 15,000 in support of Israel.
Current situation has been no different
The above trend has continued into this war.
According to a Washington Post investigation, the “TikTok battle” was won by the Palestinians before it even began. [3]
As noted by the businessman Jeff Morris Jr. in early November 2023, the hashtag #standwithpalestine had been viewed 2.9bn times, whilst #standwithisrael was viewed roughly 200m times. [3]
As a key area that the Israeli war machine has billions invested in, to be defeated so soundly is astounding.
Perversely, and perhaps a sign of Israelis’ complete lack of self-awareness, the anti-Israeli sentiment on social media always shocks Israeli officials…
Who would have thought that genocide might not be so palatable?
Zionists openly recognise this weakness
One of the chief Zionist politicians and a former Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, wrote during the ongoing war — al-Aqsa Flood — that the Israeli narrative is not popular among people. [4]
In fact, as Bennett noted, people are 15 times more likely to view the Palestinian narrative on the Internet than the Zionist narrative. [4]
Similarly, the former Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said after the Battle of Sayf al-Quds that the narrative war is equally as important as that with tanks and planes.
Danon also argued that the loss in the narrative war was caused chiefly by Netanyahu and the political echelons working with him.
This is what prompted Ronen Manelis to highlight the importance of increased focus on the social media machine. But despite this, it hasn’t worked!
Let’s agree that social media platforms are not only a place for public discussion and the exchange of news, but also the arena for creating and directing public opinion and an incubator for strengthening or weakening the resistance.
Electronic flies and missiles
Specific committees that make up part of the Israeli war machine not only recognise the above uses of social media, they also launch electronic missiles to try to destabilise the narrative.
For example, at a time when the resistance needed to be unified, the “electronic flies” — as they’re called in Palestine — were let loose to unleash a counter-narrative.
Completely baseless stories began to circulate, about how the resistance leadership were safely sitting in comfort, deep underground, whilst the civilian population suffered above.
We need to be highly aware that the social media war is just as organised and as essential to the Israelis as the physical battle. One cannot function without the other.
Israel dependent on manufactured narratives
Aside from trying to fracture the unity of the resistance in Gaza, without the army of bots and automated posts, there is no way that Israel would be able to carry out genocide.
These bot accounts are organised and publish specific opinions in order to support specific agendas.
Large amounts of tweets and other online posts will suddenly appear, all containing similar wording and incredible co-ordination.
The power of this was demonstrated during the 2016 US presidential elections, where Hilary Clinton’s campaign was destabilised through the mobilisation of social media to control the narrative in favour of Trump.
Huge investments made toward online war
Coming back to the research being conducted by the University of Oxford, a paper published in 2018 titled Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation discusses how Israel allocated $100m to launching an electronic media campaign against the BDS movement. [5]
As the authors state,
“The biggest expenditure (U.S.$740,000) was reportedly budgeted to promote content on social media and search engines, including Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, while U.S.$570,000 was spent on building Act.il, an anti-BDS app on which supporters were encouraged to spread content online by enrolling on ‘daily missions’ to advance pro-Israel messaging on social media.” [5]
Physical and social media war in unison
Another example of the danger posed by these co-ordinated campaigns was the sudden influx of “Palestinian” accounts on social media on the anniversary of October 7, all lamenting and regretting the war.
An ongoing investigation by the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) has highlighted how the physical and social media wars go hand in hand. [6]
Meanwhile, Israel has made a concerted effort to prevent journalists from reporting on the ground in Gaza, going out of its way to specifically target journalists.
Much of the reporting we see from Gaza is civilian-based, and so the influx of these anti-resistance accounts was a devious attempt to try and build a popular opinion.
CIR has identified that these accounts were misleading, with common features detected. It is very important that these suspicious accounts are identified and not given the opportunity to promote their false narrative. [6]
These accounts focus on spreading frustration in Gaza and try to promote the resistance as nothing but a reckless bunch of cowboys doing what they please. The accounts try to organise incitement campaigns against the resistance in order to undermine Palestinian solidarity.
Other accounts rely on AI-generated images, photos from previous or even unrelated wars, and even accounts where the identities of real people are stolen and images used without their knowledge!
Spotting bots and other fake activity
There are some easy ways to recognise these accounts.
For a start, because they are co-ordinated, they share the same content and usually will pump out posts at the same time.
This is, in some way, similar to Arabic news channels that propagate the Israeli narrative, albeit for an Arabic audience.
Other devious methods employed by the Israeli war machine in its social media war are boosting accounts of celebrities in support of Israeli actions.
This has a dual purpose:
- capitalising on the following of a particular celebrity to support and sympathise with Israeli messaging;
- providing an easy route for celebrities — especially those lacking a conscience — that want to increase their profile and following.
Don’t stop spreading the truth online!
To conclude, despite what we think, the use of social media, the reposting of narratives in support of our brothers and sisters in Palestine, and the spreading of informative articles or videos are having a devastating effect on Israel.
Despite spending billions upon billions of dollars, they are still not able to control the narrative, and this is a real pain point.
It should be enough to recognise that if Israel is so concerned with this topic, such that it is willing to spend these enormous sums of money, we should equally be concerned.
Just be ever mindful of all the tricks that the Israeli regime is implementing. Counter them with the truth of the situation on the ground.
Don’t stop spreading the right information, as it has a direct impact on the road to victory.
Source: Islam21c
Notes
This article was inspired by a video on the subject available here.
[1] https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/projects/computational-propaganda/
[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/02/tiktok-israel-hamas-video-brainwash/
[5] https://demtech.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2018/07/ct_appendix.pdf
Indeed, Allah’s promise is true, and His justice will prevail. Allah says in the Quran: ‘And We have already written in the Book [of Psalms] after the [previous] mention that the land [of Paradise] is inherited by My righteous servants.’ (Surah Al-Anbiya, 21:105).
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) also said: ‘Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or is oppressed.’ (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2444).
Inshallah, with faith, patience, and unity, Palestine will be free, and justice will be restored as Allah has promised.