Netanyahu’s Instagram Adds Hundreds of Thousands of Followers Amid Suspicion of Fake Growth
New data suggests Benjamin Netanyahu’s Instagram account has been gaining followers at an unusually rapid pace, with roughly 100,000 added recently, according to network researcher Gil Feldman of the “Datastate” project and Scooper. At times, the account reportedly picked up 800 to 1,000 new followers an hour, or one every few seconds, a pattern that Meta describes as “inauthentic activity,” commonly understood as bought followers.
The suspicion is reinforced, the report says, by a post about Netanyahu meeting immigrants from the Menashe tribe that drew more than 300,000 likes and about 10,000 comments, including many in Persian and some from accounts identified as fake. The unusual growth continued overnight Sunday, when more than 3,000 followers were added even though Netanyahu had not posted anything since Thursday.
By comparison, other prominent Israeli political accounts are growing far more slowly. Over the same period, Gideon Sa’ar’s account gained 70 followers, Yair Golan’s gained 34, Itamar Ben Gvir’s gained 41, and Naftali Bennett’s lost 67, apparently after a Meta cleanup. Netanyahu’s account now stands at 3.7 million followers. Meta deleted about 7,000 fake followers from the account last week, but the article says that was only a small fraction of the recent increase.
The piece argues that the apparent mass buying of followers is meant to create a false impression of popularity and amplify Netanyahu’s messages ahead of elections, especially among young voters and first-time voters. It also says the issue could affect the integrity of Israel’s elections and should concern both political leaders and the Central Elections Committee.
In a response, the Central Elections Committee said it acts within its legal authority, is working on legislative fixes where needed, and is not a law-enforcement body. It added that if a petition is filed with the committee chair over electioneering, it will be examined under the law, while campaign finance matters fall under the State Comptroller. Likud denied buying or using bots, threatened defamation action against anyone claiming otherwise, and said large jumps in Instagram growth can happen organically after viral videos. The party also said it had sent questions to Meta and had not yet received answers.
