Investigation reveals Iranian-linked social media accounts posing as Israelis ahead of elections
From more than 21,000 posts analyzed, 1516 were flagged for anomalies, including misinformation, foreign framing, and anomalous account behavior.
A new investigation by Golden Owl has uncovered a series of social media accounts allegedly linked to Iran, posing as Israelis to spread election misinformation ahead of Israel's upcoming election, set for October 27. The investigation, conducted over two phases from August 22 to September 22, analyzed 21,533 posts and flagged 1,516 for suspicious behavior.
According to Golden Owl, the accounts allegedly posted pre-emptive claims that the election results would be stolen and fabricated information about the voting process. They also claimed that the election would be postponed or suspended due to foreign interference, with taxes and mortgage payments frozen. The investigation found a spike in claims of electoral fraud on September 9, following an alleged leaked report from Likud.
The investigation identified 237 potentially suspicious accounts and 57 as part of a foreign influence campaign. It also discovered that dark-web sellers were offering services targeting Israel, including Telegram accounts registered to Israeli phone numbers and bulk sales of Telegram subscribers, boosts, votes, and views in over 20 countries. Other listings included databases of Israeli voters and advertisements for datasets containing Israeli election data.
Golden Owl identified a sophisticated Iranian-linked network manipulating the Israeli public through coordinated personas. The investigation mapped 119,717 accounts and 294,980 relationships, revealing that the network sought to present itself as Israeli women, reservists, secular voters, or religious activists. The key content hub of this network was the account "Yaara," which posted a video calling for mass emigration from Israel and had 688,434 views.
Other accounts, such as "Miriam," which has nearly 19,000 followers, played a role in amplifying the network's messaging. The identities of these personas were found to be based on borrowed and synthetic images, with some traced to public images of an adult film performer and others identified as AI-generated.
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