Foreign Network Suspected of Managing Israeli Facebook Fan Group

A new investigation by the organization Fake Reporter has revealed a network of social media accounts suspected of coordinated bot activity managing the Facebook group "Ayelet Hasson, News, Fan Club." The group boasts nearly 34,000 members who engage in political discussions and react to posts, seemingly unaware of the group's true administrators. The investigation found that the group is managed by pages whose operators are linked to countries outside of Israel, including Saudi Arabia, India, and Pakistan. These accounts have been disseminating political content, AI-generated images, and posts designed to mimic Israeli news outlets.

Over the past two years, a large and active community has been cultivated within the group, where Israelis participate in genuine political debates. The significant finding is the control exerted over this community by unknown foreign entities. With elections approaching, there are concerns that this infrastructure could be exploited to influence public discourse.

The group has approximately 33,800 members and sees over a thousand posts monthly. Five pages identified as administrators belong to a broader network of similarly characterized accounts, some created concurrently and sharing identical content. One such page, "Itai Malka Fan Club," with around 39,000 followers, lists two operators registered in Israel and one in Saudi Arabia, according to Facebook's transparency data. Other pages show operators from Saudi Arabia, and one account was found to have an Indian phone number. An additional page posting in the group, though not an administrator, lists an operator from Pakistan.

The identity of the entity behind this network remains unknown, and there is no evidence that any specific country is operating or funding it. The network's accounts publish engaging content, including AI-generated images, such as a young woman in a pilot's uniform or a 90-year-old woman depicted as a former model, examples of "AI Slop" designed for engagement. Additionally, posts have been found that are graphically designed to resemble reports from Israeli media outlets, such as a fabricated poll attributed to Channel 12 News, featuring doctored images of political figures.

Fake Reporter warns that the presence of genuine Israeli users within the group means administrators do not need to generate all activity themselves; they control an existing space for discourse. This setup could easily be used to disseminate political messages to a large audience, especially ahead of elections. This is not the first time an Israeli political community has been found to be managed by foreign accounts; a similar case involving a fan group of MK Naama Lazimi was linked to an Iranian profile in December 2025. Fake Reporter urges Meta and relevant authorities to increase oversight of foreign influence networks and transparency regarding group administrators.