Election Day Spam Surge Exceeds 950% as Parties Flood Voters

On election day, October 27, the volume of blocked spam messages across mobile networks surged by 955%, according to data from Fisherman Security, a company that develops a spam-filtering app. The company reported that nearly two-thirds (65.1%) of all SMS messages received that day were campaign-related, with blocked messages reaching 78%. As of 10:00 AM, the Democratic party led in spam volume with 23.1%, followed by Yahad (12.2%) and Otzma Yehudit (11.8%). The Likud party was notably absent, accounting for only 0.3% of detected spam messages. Earlier, telecom company Cellcom reported sending 213 million SMS messages the day before the election, a significant increase from 120 million on the day before the 2022 elections.

Matan Gidion, CEO of Fisherman Security, described the election day as unprecedented in terms of spam and campaign messaging volume. He noted a nearly 1000% increase in blocked messages and the use of sophisticated evasion techniques, typically seen in fraud and cybersecurity, indicating that mobile platforms have become a primary battleground for parties during crucial voting hours. This surge in mobile spam follows earlier reports of attempts to influence voters through social media and messaging apps in the weeks leading up to the election.

These efforts included an Iranian network of 649 fake accounts on the social media platform X, identified by Spanish company Golden Owl. Of these, 445 were attributed to Iranian influence operations, posing as Israelis and publishing 13,400 posts and comments over two months that garnered 4.73 million views. Golden Owl assessed the network's goal as undermining trust in the electoral process rather than promoting specific parties. Posts were prepared to frame a defeat of the "change bloc" as fraud and a defeat of Netanyahu as a victory over "betrayal." Real Israelis reportedly amplified these messages through shares without knowing their origin.

Additionally, mass WhatsApp distributions in Russian were reported, originating from numbers with Indian and Swedish country codes. These messages, purportedly from the Be-Yahad party, urged voters not to support the Yisrael Beiteinu (NDI) party. Be-Yahad labeled this as foreign interference, while NDI demanded an investigation into the source. On October 25, police announced the "Matzpen" unit had removed two groups from X and Facebook involved in prohibited election-related activities. The Yahad party also filed a complaint about fake messages being distributed in its name. Police explained that perpetrators create fake profiles and disseminate fabricated content, including AI-generated videos. Bot activity was expected to peak around noon on election day and subside after polling stations closed at 10:00 PM. Creating fake profiles and operating bots to influence public opinion are considered criminal offenses under Israeli law.