The “Politics Today” website said that since Israel launched its war on Gaza in response to the attack of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) known as “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” on the seventh of last October, it has been waging another war on the Internet, during which it flooded social networking sites. Social media with misleading information and fake news, in propaganda campaigns led by fake accounts that use the policy of misinformation and lies to deceive global public opinion.
The site indicated – in a report written by Linda Shalash – that Western media organizations and heads of state have, in more than one case, repeated the allegations of these sites without verifying them, such as Israel’s claim that Hamas killed 40 Israeli children and beheaded them.
In conjunction with its ongoing war on Gaza, dozens of fake accounts suddenly appeared on the Internet, relentlessly attacking Hamas and the Palestinian resistance.
The writer – as a journalist and researcher specializing in diplomacy and digital media – said, “In times of war, the random and unusual appearance of dozens of accounts on social media platforms increases, especially X, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.”
According to the writer, some of these accounts appeared shortly before the war, but they all share impersonating Arab or unknown identities, placing the flags of Arab countries next to the Israeli flag, and repeating the same story.
Mossad and Baliwood
Shalash adds that the cyber war on fake accounts also includes accounts claiming to be affiliated with official Israeli bodies, including an account claiming to be affiliated with the Israeli intelligence service (Mossad) on the “X” platform, followed by more than 100,000 people, and its falsity was exposed by Shayan Sardarzadeh. BBC journalist specializing in online misinformation monitoring.
The ongoing war has reused the word “Pallywood,” a phrase carved from the words “Palestine” and “Hollywood,” which Israel has used for years to discredit Palestinian novels and claim that the suffering of the Palestinians is a cinematic representation. Indeed, a hashtag spread during the war – as the writer says – accuses Palestinians faked their death and injury in Gaza.
Organized electronic campaigns
In this context, an investigation conducted by the Innovative Contractors for Advanced Dimensions company, which specializes in open source intelligence, revealed the truth about many digital accounts attacking the Palestinian resistance and criticizing the Al-Aqsa Flood operation.
The investigation, which was conducted in October 2023, showed that organized electronic committees stand behind these accounts that repeat phrases and use the same emojis on more than one digital platform to create fake public opinion.
These fake accounts operate under the supervision of organized committees or a specific party, which is reminiscent of “Hasbara,” the term meaning propaganda and disinformation in Hebrew, which is used as a synonym for public relations, which is a program to spread Israeli political propaganda around the world with significant government and security support, and often targets political elites. Western opinion leaders and the general public.
