Digital manipulation of online discussion about Israel
JVL Introduction
This article was first published in September 2018 but retains all its relevance today.
We repost it now as the hasbara (propaganda) war over what can and cannot be said about Israel hots up everywhere.
The concerted campaign to force institutions to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism is one prominent element in this battle.
This Act.IL app takes its place as another element in the battle to control the terms of the debate. It operates below the radar as it were, by coordinating the bombardment of news and campaigning NGO websites with pro-Israel propaganda in response to critical views they may express.
In this article Ishmael N. Daro explains precisely how it works.
This article was originally published by BuzzFeed News on Thu 20 Sep 2018. Read the original here.
How an app funded by Sheldon Adelson Is covertly influencing the online conversation about Israel
The Act.IL app paints itself as a grassroots initiative, but one expert calls it “advanced digital political astroturfing.”
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Perhaps the employment by the leader’s office of the former Israeli spy and expert in social media manipulation, Assaf Kaplan, indicates that Keir Starmer would very much like to have the use of a similar app to Act.IL, but purpose built to create a torrent of fake social media support for his own brand of toxic defamation, closet ethnonationalism and hypocrisy. But who will finance such an initiative?
Leaving aside the bullying aspect, there are some pretty grey areas here.
A lot of us will have participated in coordinated email campaigns to MPs etc.
Perhaps these people are just more organised in this way of getting their message across ?
Perhaps we should coordinate some similar things… for example, FB messages or responses to MPs posts to ensure all MPs hear our side of current arguements ?