Netanyahu, allies using armies of bots to influence social media discourse – report
Story by ToI Staff, Times of Israel, January 4, 2026
About half of the politically active accounts on Israeli social media are not real people but rather bots, including many of those boosting posts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his right-wing coalition, according to an investigation by Channel 12 news.
The report, which aired on Friday night, found that Netanyahu and his allies use bots to “like” and share their posts almost immediately after the content is uploaded, in order to convince the platforms’ algorithms to recommend it to other users.
“When he posts a five-minute video in Hebrew, in the first 60 seconds, most of the shares are from abroad, and [those] posts happen within about five seconds,” Jonathan Hasidim, of the Scooper research group, told Channel 12.
The report cited a negative post about the Brothers in Arms protest group and a reaction to the slaying of policeman 1st Sgt. Niv Peretz as examples of posts by the premier that were clearly boosted by bots.
He explained that in the latter case, “the initial [response] was very strong, 70% from abroad, and after that we see a decline.” Hasidim told the network: “It’s a trend-graph that’s very characteristic of Netanyahu’s tweets.”
Additionally, whereas reactions to such posts are often negative, when the posts are shared they skew largely positive, indicating the use of bots, according to the report.
Sometimes, a campaign involves human influencers blazing the algorithmic trail, which is then reinforced and distributed through the use of bots.
Channel 12 also cited a “whitewashing campaign” for Jonatan Urich, an aide to Netanyahu who is now under investigation for his role in leaking classified documents and for allegedly conducting a public relations campaign for the government of Qatar while working in the Prime Minister’s Office during the Israel-Hamas war.
Additionally, libels can spread through the use of bots, which protect those behind them from laws against knowingly lying about public figures.
Experts cited, as cases of bots spreading libel, campaigns against anti-government protest leader Shikma Bressler, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, and families of those who were held hostage in Gaza.
Netanyahu, allies using armies of bots to influence social media discourse – report
Ukraine has been doing that for quite some time, flooding X and news with "recommended" articles from the same sources. |
