Iran-linked social media accounts posing as Israelis to target election, investigation reveals

An investigation by Golden Owl, an AI-powered open-source intelligence platform, has uncovered an Iranian-linked social media campaign targeting Israel's upcoming election. The campaign, active between August 22 and September 22, involved accounts posing as Israeli citizens to spread misinformation about the election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and divisive issues like the haredi draft. Researchers analyzed over 21,000 posts, flagging 1,516 for anomalies including pre-emptive claims of a stolen election and false information about voting. Key findings include:

• Accounts, often based outside Israel, posted in Arabic, Russian, and English, claiming the election would be postponed or suspended due to foreign interference.
• Claims of electoral fraud spiked after Likud's allegations regarding a Haaretz report and a Supreme Court ruling on voter data.
• Dark-web services were found selling Telegram accounts registered to Israeli numbers and databases containing Israeli election and personal data.
• A layered infrastructure linked to Iran used coordinated personas, like "Yaara Shalev" and "Miriam Kozak," to embed themselves in Israeli online conversations, often using patriotic imagery and genuine grievances.
• Several accounts, despite claiming to be Israeli, were geolocated by X (formerly Twitter) to countries like Iran (via VPNs), Germany, Finland, Egypt, and Yemen, with some having previously posted in Persian on Iranian politics before rebranding as Israeli voices.

Golden Owl concluded that the campaign's deliberate design focuses on placement, repetition, and borrowed amplification to reach a wide audience, even with accounts having small individual followings, aiming to manipulate Israeli public opinion.