Bots, AI videos and voter apps turn Israel's election into an online battle
Days before Tuesday's vote, Israeli camps are deploying repurposed bot networks, AI-generated videos and voter-targeting apps. Researchers warn the tools deepen polarisation.
Archive image · Photo: Clema12 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Bots, AI-generated videos and data-driven apps are shaping the final stretch of Israel's campaign ahead of Tuesday's parliamentary election, Al Jazeera reported on Sunday. Citing Haaretz, it said dozens of bot accounts originally built to undermine Iran's government had been repurposed to promote Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party and to warn against Gadi Eisenkot and Naftali Bennett.
AI videos are also circulating on X. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich released one showing the Supreme Court president, a justice and the attorney general being dragged from a protest, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir shared clips depicting Gazans as donkeys. For election day, Likud is urging supporters to download an app called Victory 26 that lets activists find low-turnout areas and target people who have not voted, according to Haaretz. The Central Elections Committee had restricted the party's use of an earlier app over privacy concerns.
"AI, algorithms and data management are all utilised to cement what we call 'affective polarisation'," said Roi Zur, a voting-behaviour lecturer at the University of Essex. Smaller parties say they are outgunned. "We're competing against parties with far greater budgets and technological resources, particularly the Likud," said Mauricio Lapchik of the Joint List. Polls show Netanyahu's bloc and the Eisenkot-led opposition tied.