194,000 new followers in two months: The petition against Netanyahu's "bot network"

The Movement for Freedom of Information has filed a petition with the Central Elections Committee against Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud party, demanding the disclosure and labeling of paid activity using fake accounts (bots) on the X platform. The petition presents unusual data: 194,000 new followers in two months, thousands per day, and up to 75% of shares from users outside Israel. The movement claims this constitutes paid election propaganda requiring proper disclosure.

The Movement for Freedom of Information has filed a petition with the Central Elections Committee against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud party, demanding the disclosure and labeling of paid activity using fake accounts (bots) on the X platform. The petition, based on data from the network monitoring company Scooper, presents unusual data on Netanyahu's account: between July and September, approximately 194,000 new followers were added, a consistent daily growth of 3,000 to 5,000 followers. In one week in August, nearly 35,000 followers were added. For comparison, during the same period, Naftali Bennett's account gained only 162 followers. An examination of the last 1,000 new followers found that about 75% of Netanyahu's new follower accounts were opened in the 24 hours prior to the check, and about half had a profile picture predicted to be inauthentic. It also emerged that within minutes of posting tweets, 55% to 75% of shares came from users outside Israel. The movement argues that paid echo of messages using fake accounts constitutes paid election propaganda requiring proper disclosure, and that the lack of labeling creates a misleading appearance of authentic public support. The petition seeks an order to remove paid publications not labeled as election ads, and an order requiring proper disclosure for future use of paid fake accounts.