Perspective: Digital disinformationHow a “Political Astroturfing” App Coordinates Pro-Israel Influence Operations
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long been a global battle, fought by hundreds of proxies in dozens of national capitals by way of political, economic, and cultural pressure. As the internet has evolved, so have the tools used to wage this information struggle. The latest innovation — a pro-Israel smartphone app that seeds and amplifies pro-Israel messages across social media — saw its first major test in May 2019. It offered a glimpse of the novel methods by which future influence campaigns will be conducted and information wars won.
Pro-Israel messages broadcast during 4-5 May Hamas terror attacks and IDF air strikes offer new insights into reach of the Act.IL app’s social media manipulation
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long been a global battle, fought by hundreds of proxies in dozens of national capitals by way of political, economic, and cultural pressure. As the internet has evolved, so have the tools used to wage this information struggle.
Emerson T. Brooking and Melissa Hall write for DFR Lab that the latest innovation — a pro-Israel smartphone app that seeds and amplifies pro-Israel messages across social media — saw its first major test in May 2019. It offered a glimpse of the novel methods by which future influence campaigns will be conducted and information wars won.
The DFRLab monitored Act.IL missions during 4-5 May and captured corresponding Facebook, Twitter, and web activity. The results of this investigation illustrate the manner in which Act.IL orchestrates coordinated, centrally planned influence operations in order to promote Israeli public diplomacy goals online.
This analysis, however, also reveals that the Act.IL app’s effectiveness has been overstated by champions and critics alike. Out of a userbase of 17,500, the app elicited approximately 300 publicly trackable pageviews and 243 Facebook interactions for its emergency landing page. It elicited an average of only 12 retweets each for the Twitter messages it sought to amplify.
Indeed, the principal impact of the Act.IL app has been to cast doubt on the authenticity of numerous other expressions of Israeli support, in contravention of Israeli public diplomacy goals.
