Comment by Kranar
1 year ago
Saying Israel set this up is quite misleading. This group is no more affiliated with Israel than Alex Jones is affiliated with the U.S.
This is a grassroots organization doing this and in fact its funding and support mostly comes from Americans, such as casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and the Israeli-American Council.
Your rhetorical point about Alex Jones is contradicted within your own post. Alex Jones does not receive grant funding from the US government, but this group does receive a portion of its funding from the Israeli government.
James Bamford has written at least 3 good articles about Israeli government influence of US civil society (social media) and elections (the leak of the DNC hack materials), all in the last year or so, at The Nation: https://www.thenation.com/authors/james-bamford/
And until extremely recently, the IDF and associated arms of the state have been engaging in even more deceptive actions, such as creating sock-puppet accounts to bolster support for government policy, targeting Israelis themselves: https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-admits-psychological-warfa...
It's impossible to be certain of anything related to these highly unaccountable and secret operations, but the "grain" of truth runs very much in the direction of Israeli state interference, with quite wide scope -- but effectiveness unknown.
act.il has never received any government funding. It was an entirely grassroots organization with no affiliation to the Israeli government.
Please stop spreading misinformation.
You are wrong. It is part of a campaign called 4il which is supported and spearheaded by the staffed by the Israeli Strategic Affairs Ministry. Act.il's is staffed by former intelligence officers and its founder and CEO is former intelligence officer Yarden Ben Yosef who said that "both Israels military and the Shin Bet security service were making specific requests from Act.il for its help in getting violent anti-Israel videos removed from Facebook and other platforms." before walking the statement back. If you call that no affiliation, then you're spreading misinformation.
https://archive.is/ERHPN#selection-2055.97-2055.288 https://archive.is/BR10K
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On the question of funding, I must partially apologize, I did muddle things. I based my comments on a separate article on this topic, not the OP, and forgot that fact. While I still support my claims, I didn't explain that it was based on further research not present in the OP, and hence, my whole bit about "within your own post" was way too strong: https://electronicintifada.net/content/inside-israels-millio...
> Watchdog The Seventh Eye revealed that Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs spent almost $2 million on one propaganda campaign in 2017 – part of which was allocated to Act.IL.
> A global influence campaign funded by the Israeli government had a $1.1 million budget last year, a document obtained by The Electronic Intifada shows.
> In its annual report, from January, Act.IL says its goal is to “influence foreign publics” and “battle” BDS – the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.
I think that's a reasonably credible source, but you may disagree. The EI piece is a compilation of other people's work, in particular, The Seventh Eye, affiliated with +972.
On your point about "affiliation", that is clearly false, based on the OP article, and numerous other (more universally credible) sources, such as Forward[1], and Haaretz[2].
[1] https://forward.com/news/388259/shadowy-israeli-app-turns-am...
> The Herzliya headquarters is the base of Act.il, a hybrid Israel advocacy effort and online information operation. A joint project of two Israeli not-for-profits, it is led by former Israeli intelligence officers and has close ties to Israel’s intelligence services, its Ministry of Strategic Affairs and American Jewish casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson. Act.il’s leaders frame the program as an effort to counterbalance anti-Israel attitudes online.
> “We know each other,” he said of his group’s relationship with members of Israel’s intelligence community. “You don’t get [sent] a link to [a specific video]. We talk with each other. We work together.”
[2] https://archive.md/newest/https://www.haaretz.com/israel-new...
> A pro-Israel social media advocacy app that partners with the Israeli Strategic Affairs Ministry is asking activists to influence Googles search results for the term BDS.
> Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) told the plenum that “boycott organizations are spread out geographically and act in different areas. The organizations built a network of activity and act in coordination with the Palestinian Authority. There is a campaign of falsehoods fueling hate.”
> ”Since this is a battlefront like any other, the ministry put together a strategy for running the campaign against this phenomenon,” Minister Erdan stated.
> ”One of the principles for success is keeping our methods of action secret…Since most of the ministry’s actions are not of the ministry, but through bodies around the world who do not want to expose their connection with the state, we must protect the information whose exposure could harm the battle.”
The fact of the affiliation and funding being somewhat opaque in official records must also be balanced against the fact that it is government policy to enforce this opacity: https://archive.md/20190611095349/https://main.knesset.gov.i...
> Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) told the plenum that “boycott organizations are spread out geographically and act in different areas. The organizations built a network of activity and act in coordination with the Palestinian Authority. There is a campaign of falsehoods fueling hate.”
> ”Since this is a battlefront like any other, the ministry put together a strategy for running the campaign against this phenomenon,” Minister Erdan stated.
> ”One of the principles for success is keeping our methods of action secret…Since most of the ministry’s actions are not of the ministry, but through bodies around the world who do not want to expose their connection with the state, we must protect the information whose exposure could harm the battle.”
I don't know whether the specific legislation went into effect. Regardless, it clearly states that "actions [...] not of the ministry, but through bodies around the world" is an ongoing strategy for their success (in their view).
> This group is no more affiliated with Israel than Alex Jones is affiliated with the U.S.
Who gives a damn about affiliation? What matters is the material effect on the world, and it's hard to find a more notorious propaganda movement in the world than hasbara
Associating an independent politically motivated group with an ethnic state as a whole is a common means of disseminating racist views. Israel is no more involved in act.il than the U.S. is involved with Alex Jones, and it's worth pointing that out because otherwise people might think that this operation has some kind of official endorsement by the Israeli government.
"people might think that this operation has some kind of official endorsement by the Israeli government."
Because it does. https://archive.is/ERHPN#selection-2055.97-2055.288 https://www.mintpressnews.com/israels-teen-troll-army-hasbar...
You are right about anti-semitic tropes, and it's a serious accusation, but if it's happening it's a problem. Not that official endorsement should be the standard to follow. Crowdsourcing a troll army for positive coverage is deceptive, regardless of whether support is official or shadier.
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