{"id":38426,"date":"2019-04-02T05:23:45","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T05:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38426"},"modified":"2019-04-02T05:23:45","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T05:23:45","slug":"israeli-watchdog-finds-online-manipulation-favoring-netanyahu-ahead-of-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38426","title":{"rendered":"Israeli watchdog finds online manipulation favoring Netanyahu ahead of vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1476071\/middle-east\" readability=\"55\">\n<p>\nJERUSALEM: An Israeli cyber watchdog said Monday it has uncovered a network of fake online accounts backing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and slandering opponents ahead of next week\u2019s general election.<br \/>In a new report the Big Bots Protect, which describes itself as a campaigner against social media abuse, said posts used \u201clies, libel and rumormongering\u201d to attack Netanyahu\u2019s challengers.<br \/>It found over 130,000 tweets from \u201chundreds of fake or anonymous accounts\u201d without names or profile pictures, which did not identify themselves as linked to Netanyahu\u2019s Likud party.<br \/>It acknowledged that there were also \u201chundreds of genuine accounts\u201d backing the premier\u2019s bid for re-election.<br \/>Among the targets were journalists and public figures considered hostile to Netanyahu including his main challenger, Benny Gantz, leader of the centrist Blue and White party.<br \/>The report said they included accusations that Gantz was a \u201crapist\u201d and others questioning his mental health.<br \/>A spokeswoman for Blue and White told AFP that party leaders had filed a complaint against the posts with police.<br \/>\u201cThere is an attempt to steal the elections, there is a system of lies here,\u201d Gantz wrote on Twitter.<br \/>\u201cNetanyahu\u2019s house of cards is collapsing.\u201d<br \/>The prime minister went live on Facebook and YouTube to dismiss the report, flanked by what he said was a genuine Likud online supporter.<br \/>\u201cA million Likud voters are not \u2018bots\u2019,\u201d he said, adding that Likud was also filing a police complaint against Blue and White for accusing him.<br \/>\u201cNot one of them is fake,\u201d he said of the messages cited by the Big Bots Protect.<br \/>\u201cThey have names, they have families,\u201d he added. \u201cThey have their own opinions, independent people!\u201c<br \/>Netanyahu, 69, is seeking a fifth term in office in the April 9 election, despite also facing potential corruption charges.<br \/>Blue and White has consistently been scoring better than Likud in opinion polls, although Netanyahu is seen as standing a better chance of putting together a coalition government under Israel\u2019s proportional representation electoral system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JERUSALEM: An Israeli cyber watchdog said Monday it has uncovered a network of fake online accounts backing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and slandering opponents ahead of next week\u2019s general election.In a new report the Big Bots Protect, which describes itself as a campaigner against social media abuse, said posts used \u201clies, libel and rumormongering\u201d to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}