BySARAH BEN-NUN

JULY 7, 2026 16:08

Updated: JULY 7, 2026 16:51

Israel continues without a nationwide strategy or assigned state agency to handle overseas efforts to sway online opinion, nine years after the risk was first noted, outgoing State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman stated on Tuesday.

The assessment arrives as Israel heads into an election cycle, a time the findings flagged as especially open to efforts aimed at distorting discussion and eroding confidence in voting outcomes.

"The danger of overseas sway in the online space is concerning," Englman said. "Adversaries, including Iran, use social platforms in hidden and organized ways to widen rifts, spread alarm and shape how the Israeli public sees events."

The comptroller review, carried out from July 2024 to January 2026, showed that multiple pushes since 2017 to build a joint agency response never resulted in an active national system.

The report noted that the National Security Council, the National Cyber Directorate, the former Intelligence Ministry, the Shin Bet and additional groups each spotted the risk at separate times. Still, plans to align their efforts were dropped, no national approach was finalized, and no one was given clear ownership of the topic.

National security proposal delivered, yet not reviewed by PM Netanyahu

A 2023 security review that offered steps to better track and counter overseas sway efforts on social platforms was never brought to the full cabinet, the report stated.

The Cyber Directorate gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a draft national plan in August 2024 and sent it on the next month. Yet as of mid-July 2025, the Prime Minister Office had not reviewed the plan, the comptroller found. It moved to the NSC only after the State Comptroller Office raised the matter.

By August 2025, both the NSC and Cyber Directorate had largely pulled back from wider work on the topic. The Cyber Directorate chose to limit itself to cases where overseas sway came from cyberattacks tied to influence aims.

The report cautioned that these shortfalls have left Israel with an incomplete view of overseas moves online.

The Shin Bet tracks suspected overseas sway operations, but the audit showed some technical and practical issues still unresolved. A test project meant to boost tracking tools was still under review in July 2025, before the Cyber Directorate ended its broader efforts.

The report also showed there is no set route for civil groups or the public to flag suspected overseas sway activity to officials.

This shortfall matters because online platforms now shape much of Israeli daily life. A survey noted in the report found that about 58 percent of Israelis regularly turn to social media for news.

Report highlights cases of sway efforts and election meddling

The report listed several cases of sway activity. One involved a drive called ISNAD, which a 2024 study said aimed to shape Israeli views on the war. The report said the drive created thousands of posts from December 2023 to August 2024 and ran between 300 and 1,000 fake accounts on X alone.

It also mentioned a drive spotted by Israeli firm Next Dim that tried, in the opening days of the Gaza conflict, to push the "GazaGenocide" line online. Charts in the report showed the drive early moves and how the phrase later spread into wider anti-Israel online talk.

The report added that roughly five million alarming text messages, wrongly urging people to enter shelters at once, reached Israelis in September 2024 in an operation blamed by the National Cyber Directorate on Iran and Hezbollah.

Work to take down harmful content has also proved hard to measure. Requests from security groups and state ministries to the Cyber Department of the State Attorney Office for voluntary platform takedowns grew from about 8,600 in 2021 to over 106,000 in 2024. Between 15 percent and 25 percent of requests sent to platforms in those years received no reply, the report said.

Yet the department does not track requests on overseas sway operations separately, so the government cannot see how platforms handled that specific area.

The comptroller also faulted the lack of readiness in schools and before elections. Teaching tools on false information and clear thinking stay optional, even with risks from altered content and AI-made material. A "Fake or Not" program by the Education Ministry drew only about 9,000 site visits and 45,000 content views over roughly a year and a half.

The report said the Central Elections Committee had shortfalls in its risk review, while Justice Ministry rules written in 2019 for handling online election meddling had not been refreshed despite big gains in artificial intelligence.

Englman urged the NSC to send the prime minister a structure for a government decision that sets up a funded coordinating body. He also called for improved Shin Bet tracking, a clear reporting path for civil society, stronger data on platform takedown requests, required digital literacy classes, and tighter election planning.

"I want to sound an alert," Englman said. "Failing to close the shortfalls in overseas sway in the online space leaves the Israeli public at risk and calls for firm national steps."