Russia Uses Israel-Hamas War To Wage Cyber Disinformation Campaign

Tyler Cross
Published on: November 25, 2023

According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, Russia is waging a disinformation campaign online, taking advantage of the Israel-Hamas war to disseminate propaganda and stir up global conflicts. The Israeli anti-disinformation research community named the campaign Operation Doppelganger due to its tactics of replicating other popular websites to spread information.

Operation Doppelganger sees fraudulent websites posing as legitimate news sources spreading deliberate misinformation to drive up international tensions. The focus is on promoting antisemitism.

By using new technology, like AI programs, Russia can scale up its traditional disinformation practices by rapidly creating a multitude of fake websites and social media accounts. Even if a few are taken down, AI can be used to continuously pump new websites onto the internet to continue spreading antisemitic misinformation.

Rather than creating new formats and organizations, most of these reports detail websites using extremely similar layouts to existing reputable news organizations. The goal is to trick anyone caught unaware into believing they’re reading official reports.

These fake websites are then spread through multiple means. They were spread through Telegram groups, distributed through social media websites, and used dozens of fake websites. X (formerly known as Twitter) sees the worst of the assault, with fake accounts and posts swarming every part of the site.

There are even reports of the hackers purchasing ads on Google and Facebook to spread their sites and create fake videos. The operation is one of the most complex campaigns that has been waged, especially due to the advancements in AI tech.

The operation was exposed thanks to the efforts of independent Russian researchers who gave Israel the information under the online alias @Antibot4Navalny.

This isn’t the only case of superpowers spreading anti-Semitic misinformation. Recently, TikTok was accused of spreading content with a strong anti-Semitic bend. While TikTok has pushed back against those claims, investigations haven’t concluded.

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• Source: https://www.safetydetectives.com/news/russia-uses-israel-hamas-war-to-wage-cyber-disinformation-campaign/