The Guardian article states that it doesn't exist as a legal entity in any jurisdiction, has no listed physical address, no named staff and no bylines on any reports. Their terms of use reference the laws of "the state in which the Institute is established" which isn't named.
It seems very impressive when you open it. That appears to be the point: the Israeli government's position presented as neutral, academic policy research purpose built for search LLMs to scrape and serve up in an AI overview as fact.
I have to say that is almost an excellent point - think tanks are ultimately propaganda outfits, so it is hard to have a "fake" think tank which is merely that.
But in this case the "fake" label means that the think tank itself doesn't actually exist. The article expands on the topic with "apparently does not exist as a legal entity in any jurisdiction, has no physical address, and carries no named staff and no bylines on any of its reports".
So if they hired some people to set up the HIPP and posted the same material it'd be a real think tank, but because the institute doesn't seem to exist at all it is a fake think tank. That isn't a comment on the writing produced.
I think it's a misunderstanding of what is alleged here. It's not alleged that the website produces propaganda. It's alleged that the website is fake, designed to seem like a legitimate source of information where info about it is just not available, in order to get AI to scoop up what it writes and treat it like a legitimate source of information vs how it would treat a real think tank which has a point of view that's documented and known in the world
A real think tank with real authors and disclosed funding sources could have something one can learn about it and its political leanings. A fake one can seem impartial due to little info existing about it (since it's fake).
> A pro-Israel messaging website badged with the name of a thinktank that does not exist
> The site publishes in the name of the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, which apparently does not exist as a legal entity in any jurisdiction, has no physical address, and carries no named staff and no bylines on any of its reports.
In the article, if you'd like to read it, it's quite informative about how AI poisoning or AI SEO will go forward in the coming years, imo
The main non-standard thing on that page is the attribution.
> This material is distributed by Piro, Inc. on behalf of Havas Media Germany GmbH on behalf of the Israel Government Advertising Agency (LaPam). Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC
I'm no expert, but I'm guessing it's the fact that there's no actual thinking going on and it's AI generated slop designed to manipulate LLMs and subsequently the populace.
Yeah but this is especially interesting because it’s Israel doing it and Israel bad. Just don’t look at the thousands of other think tanks, universities, politicians and their funding that comes from other sources.
Just in case you were as confused as I was... There appear to be two completely different fake think tanks, reported almost simultaneously.
- International Burke Institute (IBI), Claims to be Israeli think tank, Funded by Russia. This one is ChatGPT generated promotion + fake institutional credibility.
- Hanover Institute for Public Policy, Claims to be US think tank, Israeli government funded. This one is deliberately publishing material optimized to influence/cite in LLM answers.
> Much of the generated content [from Russia] was to promote a self-described “expert community” called the International Burke Institute (IBI). The IBI brand was associated with a website which was registered in February 2025. This site claimed that the Institute was based in Israel.
This is the Russians using Israel as a cover. Not what the article linked is about.
This is not a related source at all, the article and discussion you linked is about a cluster of ChatGPT accounts originating in Russia. The discussion of this thread is about a US thinktank set up and funded by Israel to game AI for propaganda. This is getting meta - are you trying to game the discussion about this AI gaming thinktank?
On the Uyghur Genocide, we've seen aerial photography of the camps, images inside the camps, and survivors have testified before the UN on horrific accounts of abuse. Some of the most heinous stories I've ever read have come from that event, published by widely reputable outlets. Hard disagree that it's a government psyop.
A lot of the photographs and testimony is from a single source and is very biased. Human rights abuses are massively overstated by the west in an attempt to demonize China.
The associated press reported the camps closing nearly 5 years ago.
The entire conversation around the Uyghur "Genocide" has never been serious. The claim of genocide came from the estimated rate of population growth reducing(to a still positive rate) and the actual report, written by a high up member of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation specifically used the phrase "Cultural Genocide".
Additionally, the region was a focus in the early 2000s during the War on Terror, when China asked to include the extremist groups in terror watch lists. The US agreed and they were included up until a couple years prior to the events in Xinjiang.
These were essentially re-education camps focused on radicalized groups. If anything, it's a more productive path than similar efforts, ie the ex-ISIS camps in Syria.
Those never seem to be mentioned in tandem. They're supported nominally by western countries, where ex-isis members and families are kept indefinitely. Thousands of stateless prisoners, including women with children are kept there. When the boys reach the age of 14(iirc), they're put in the actual prisons with the men. Those camps essentially concentrate the extremism for the eventuality of the camps' closure. No attempts were made for deradicalization.
This is the future and we all need to be working against it. Are there watchdogs measuring the response of each of the chat interfaces to detect this?
PS. Our US tax dollars are being used to do this. Defund Israel.
[dupe]
Discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49313477
what makes a thinktank fake? no real authors? the about page seems rather standard to me - https://hanoverinstitute.com/hanover/about
Every thinktank has always been established to push some viewpoint.
The Guardian article states that it doesn't exist as a legal entity in any jurisdiction, has no listed physical address, no named staff and no bylines on any reports. Their terms of use reference the laws of "the state in which the Institute is established" which isn't named.
It seems very impressive when you open it. That appears to be the point: the Israeli government's position presented as neutral, academic policy research purpose built for search LLMs to scrape and serve up in an AI overview as fact.
[flagged]
I have to say that is almost an excellent point - think tanks are ultimately propaganda outfits, so it is hard to have a "fake" think tank which is merely that.
But in this case the "fake" label means that the think tank itself doesn't actually exist. The article expands on the topic with "apparently does not exist as a legal entity in any jurisdiction, has no physical address, and carries no named staff and no bylines on any of its reports".
So if they hired some people to set up the HIPP and posted the same material it'd be a real think tank, but because the institute doesn't seem to exist at all it is a fake think tank. That isn't a comment on the writing produced.
I think it's a misunderstanding of what is alleged here. It's not alleged that the website produces propaganda. It's alleged that the website is fake, designed to seem like a legitimate source of information where info about it is just not available, in order to get AI to scoop up what it writes and treat it like a legitimate source of information vs how it would treat a real think tank which has a point of view that's documented and known in the world
A real think tank with real authors and disclosed funding sources could have something one can learn about it and its political leanings. A fake one can seem impartial due to little info existing about it (since it's fake).
3 replies →
> A pro-Israel messaging website badged with the name of a thinktank that does not exist
> The site publishes in the name of the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, which apparently does not exist as a legal entity in any jurisdiction, has no physical address, and carries no named staff and no bylines on any of its reports.
In the article, if you'd like to read it, it's quite informative about how AI poisoning or AI SEO will go forward in the coming years, imo
The main non-standard thing on that page is the attribution.
> This material is distributed by Piro, Inc. on behalf of Havas Media Germany GmbH on behalf of the Israel Government Advertising Agency (LaPam). Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC
Finally a win for the German "impressum" requirement!
3 replies →
I'm no expert, but I'm guessing it's the fact that there's no actual thinking going on and it's AI generated slop designed to manipulate LLMs and subsequently the populace.
I would have thought AI companies were doing their best to discard AI-generated training data.
Yeah but this is especially interesting because it’s Israel doing it and Israel bad. Just don’t look at the thousands of other think tanks, universities, politicians and their funding that comes from other sources.
Please actually read the article instead of being dishonest.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49449449
Just in case you were as confused as I was... There appear to be two completely different fake think tanks, reported almost simultaneously.
- International Burke Institute (IBI), Claims to be Israeli think tank, Funded by Russia. This one is ChatGPT generated promotion + fake institutional credibility.
- Hanover Institute for Public Policy, Claims to be US think tank, Israeli government funded. This one is deliberately publishing material optimized to influence/cite in LLM answers.
(insert meme of multiple Spider-Men pointing at each other here)
Hanover Institute does not claim to be a US think tank. Their about page is very clear about their affiliation.
> This one is deliberately publishing material optimized to influence/cite in LLM answers.
Isn't that just good SEO?
This sounds illegal; isn't foreign interference illegal?
Previous discussion
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49337392
if there is the need to pollute information there is a reason behind and that's enough to judge and realize the intentions.
I mean just even from the titles mentioned in the article:
“Is Anti-Zionism Antisemitism?” “Did Israel Expel Palestinians From Their Land?” “Is Israel Carrying Out a Genocide in Gaza?”
no need to even read them, if you have to pose those questions and pollute their answers the intention is pretty clear.
What's the difference between a fake thinktank and a real thinktank?
[dead]
[flagged]
From the article:
"Well, just talking about this though could contribute to antisemitism."
Are there any bullshit detector LLM benchmarks?
[flagged]
> Much of the generated content [from Russia] was to promote a self-described “expert community” called the International Burke Institute (IBI). The IBI brand was associated with a website which was registered in February 2025. This site claimed that the Institute was based in Israel.
This is the Russians using Israel as a cover. Not what the article linked is about.
This is not a related source at all, the article and discussion you linked is about a cluster of ChatGPT accounts originating in Russia. The discussion of this thread is about a US thinktank set up and funded by Israel to game AI for propaganda. This is getting meta - are you trying to game the discussion about this AI gaming thinktank?
That is a completely different article about a completely different case.
[flagged]
On the Uyghur Genocide, we've seen aerial photography of the camps, images inside the camps, and survivors have testified before the UN on horrific accounts of abuse. Some of the most heinous stories I've ever read have come from that event, published by widely reputable outlets. Hard disagree that it's a government psyop.
A lot of the photographs and testimony is from a single source and is very biased. Human rights abuses are massively overstated by the west in an attempt to demonize China.
The associated press reported the camps closing nearly 5 years ago.
The entire conversation around the Uyghur "Genocide" has never been serious. The claim of genocide came from the estimated rate of population growth reducing(to a still positive rate) and the actual report, written by a high up member of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation specifically used the phrase "Cultural Genocide".
Additionally, the region was a focus in the early 2000s during the War on Terror, when China asked to include the extremist groups in terror watch lists. The US agreed and they were included up until a couple years prior to the events in Xinjiang.
These were essentially re-education camps focused on radicalized groups. If anything, it's a more productive path than similar efforts, ie the ex-ISIS camps in Syria.
Those never seem to be mentioned in tandem. They're supported nominally by western countries, where ex-isis members and families are kept indefinitely. Thousands of stateless prisoners, including women with children are kept there. When the boys reach the age of 14(iirc), they're put in the actual prisons with the men. Those camps essentially concentrate the extremism for the eventuality of the camps' closure. No attempts were made for deradicalization.
8 replies →
Who else but Quagmire
Criticizing Israel isn't allowed on HN
870+ comments not blocked on its prior listing here eight days ago.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49337392
[flagged]
Do you think there are more posts about Israel here, or any other non-US nation?
I might do the math and come back. I’m certain Israel is wildly over presented in attention on HN.
Israel is wildly over presented in attention in congress
I would hope it’s over presented because it’s committing genocide
3 replies →
Israel? more like the UK with the help of China