Israeli Party Leaders Focus on Smear Campaigns in Social Media
Translated & summarized from Ynet by baba
An AI analysis of Israeli party leaders' social media activity in the month before the election shows a strong focus on negative campaigning against rivals, with substantive policy discussions being minimal. Benjamin Netanyahu posted the most, but the election narrative is largely centered on him. Leaders from the "change bloc" predominantly targeted Netanyahu, while he distributed his attacks. A slogan like "Right-wing or Palestine" was prominent, and some posts, including one by Netanyahu about an Indian pilot, achieved millions of views, largely from international audiences.
The story in 6 lines · by baba
- Israeli party leaders' social media posts analyzed show a focus on smearing opponents rather than presenting policy.
- Benjamin Netanyahu posted the most, but the election narrative is largely centered on him.
- Opposition leaders primarily targeted Netanyahu personally in their negative social media campaigns.
- Substantive policy discussions constituted only 6% of the analyzed social media content.
- A slogan like "Right-wing or Palestine" was prominent in campaign messaging.
- Some non-election posts, like Netanyahu's salute to an Indian pilot, garnered millions of views.
An analysis of social media posts by Israeli party leaders in the month leading up to the election reveals a heavy emphasis on negative campaigning against opponents, with substantive policy discussions forming a small fraction of their content. The study, conducted by AI Claude on posts from September 16 to October 17 across X, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, examined 13 party leaders whose parties were polling above the electoral threshold.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Chairman of the Likud party, posted the highest number of messages (647), but leaders of the "change bloc" also maintained high posting frequencies. The analysis indicates that the election is primarily framed as a referendum "for or against Netanyahu." A significant portion of posts from Netanyahu, Gadi Eisenkot, Avigdor Lieberman, and Yair Golan focused on "negatives about the rival bloc," aiming to smear opposing candidates. This negative campaigning ranged from 25% of Netanyahu's posts to 33% of Lieberman's.
Leaders like Naftali Bennett and ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich dedicated more posts to their perceived achievements or public image. Notably, the "change bloc" primarily targeted Netanyahu personally, with Eisenkot, Lieberman, Golan, and Bennett posting numerous messages against him, often referencing issues like the October 7th events, draft evasion by Haredim, and the Qatar affair. Netanyahu, conversely, distributed his attacks among several opposition leaders, with Eisenkot being his most frequent target.
Substantive policy proposals constituted only about 6% of all analyzed posts, with Bennett and Lieberman showing slightly higher percentages. Netanyahu's posts focused on policy proposals in only 2% of cases. A prominent slogan used by Netanyahu and Smotrich was "Right-wing or Palestine," which was also echoed, sometimes critically, by opposition leaders like Lieberman and Eisenkot. One of Lieberman's posts using this slogan garnered over 7.6 million views, largely from international audiences.
Interestingly, Netanyahu's post saluting an Indian pilot after an attempted plane hijacking received the most views (14 million), also primarily from international viewers. Other highly viewed posts by Netanyahu included his UN speech and attacks on opposition figures. A small number of Netanyahu's posts were flagged as AI-generated, more than most other party leaders.
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