Researchers studied the rapper Lowkey, whose real name is Kareen Dennis, and found that 11 per cent of profiles that engaged with him on X were fake.
Lowkey, who has more than 390,000 followers on the social media channel, posted on Oct 7: “The arrogance to believe you could keep two million trapped in an open air prison indefinitely….” He has also claimed that Israel is “not a country” and has been “deliberately” starving Gazans.
Researchers also analysed the profile of Robert Carter, who works for the 5Pillars website and has 125,0000 followers on X, finding that 15 per cent of accounts that engage with him are fake.
Within days of the Oct 7 massacre, he accused Israel of being “propaganda peddlers” with “fake stories of beheaded babies to con the public into sympathy with Israel”. In October, he claimed Israel had “started using chemical weapons in Lebanon as well as Gaza”.
Mr Carter said: “Any details regarding fake accounts on platforms such as X is Elon Musk’s problem, not mine.”
Mr Hussain and Mr Dennis declined to comment. There is no suggestion that any of them are aware of, or have control over, fake accounts interacting with them online.
Rafi Mendelsohn, the Cyabra vice president, said: “Iran, China and Russia are very active in creating fake accounts on social media. Using our technology, we can see the scale and sophistication of these campaigns, and from that we can infer or understand whether this looks like a state actor activity.
“The sophistication and level of what we have seen does suggest a state actor level of involvement”.
It comes amid growing concern among Israeli ministers about the grip that social media influencers have on British discourse about the war in Gaza. A recent report circulating among senior Israeli officials said “influential pro-Hamas” figures were “engaged in creating, resonating and promoting the pro-Hamas narrative in England”.
Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs, told The Telegraph: “The grip of the Muslim Brotherhood of Hamas in Britain is far beyond what the average citizen in Britain might think.
“There is a direct threat to Britain from pro-Hamas organisations that are operating all across Britain with a clear purpose to impose Sharia law and to make Britain a Muslim island – that’s the reality and that’s their vision.”
He said the British authorities “need to be far more active, far more aggressive against these enemies, which threaten not just the Jewish community, but the way of life and the basic values of Britain as a democratic state”.
A government spokesman said: “Defending our democratic processes is an absolute priority, and we will continue calling out malicious activity that poses a threat to our institutions and values.”
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
