Fact Finder Promotes Propaganda

An AI bot named Fact Finder has been hunting down posts about Israel and Palestine, especially posts about the Gaza war, to promote the Israeli narrative on the X platform. Created in March 2022, the bot posted for the first time in May 2024 in Hebrew before shifting to English to promote the Israeli narrative.

The Fact Finder bot is claimed to counter misinformation against Israel with “AI-driven facts.” It notably interacts with media outlets known for their coverage of the Gaza war, such as Al Jazeera and The Electronic Intifada, as well as pro-Israel and pro-Palestine influencers.

It posts between 2,000 and 5,000 posts per week, with peaks reaching up to 7,000 posts per week. The bot could reply to multiple posts simultaneously.

Despite being intended as a pro-Israel propaganda tool, Misbar’s examination of the account showed that the bot has, at times, supported Palestine and turned against Israel. The examination also showed that the bot, though claimed to “counter misinformation,” has participated in spreading false narratives against both sides, particularly Palestine.

The Pro-Israel Bot Sides With Palestine

In multiple instances, Fact Finder appeared to advocate for Palestinian perspectives in its replies to posts regarding Palestine.

FakeReporter, an Israeli disinformation watchdog, pointed out that the bot responded to a post describing Blinken as “the Butcher of Gaza and the father of Genocide,” saying that Blinken will be remembered for his actions that “have caused immense suffering and devastation in Gaza.”

Recently, the bot described Trump’s plan to “take over” Gaza as not a “viable or constructive solution” and would not contribute to peace or stability in the region, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed the plan.

The bot has also criticized the violence committed by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in Gaza, describing it as an ongoing aggression and violence.

In many instances, the bot contradicted the Israeli narrative of the war. When a post alleged that an Israeli male hostage was kept in the home of an UNRWA teacher, the bot described the post as misleading, siding with UNRWA saying that the agency has strict guidelines prohibiting involvement in militant or political activities. This contradicts Israel’s frequent claims that UNRWA is a “haven for Hamas,” which ultimately led to banning the agency from operation on Israeli land, including in occupied East Jerusalem.

The Fact Finder bot dismissed propaganda against UNRWA

The bot has glitches causing it to repeat terms against Israel. It replied to an X account dismissing that Israel used the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital as an operations headquarters while describing the Israeli army as “the Israeli occupation.”

It is important to note that Israel indeed turned the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital into a military base, an action condemned by the Turkish government in July 2024.

The Fact Finder bot’s misinterpretations have occasionally led it to support Palestinian perspectives, and in some cases, even Hamas.

In a surprising instance, the bot praised the efforts of the Sahm Unit, one of Hamas’s units that combat internal corruption, for eliminating aid looters who cooperated with Israel. The bot described their successful operation as a “clear demonstration of the commitment to rooting out corruption and criminal activities that harm the Palestinian people.” This statement suggests that the bot may lack familiarity with the Sahm Unit’s ties to Hamas, leading it to inadvertently praise the group’s efforts.

It praised a Palestinian video game developer for creating a game depicting the 1948 Nakba, in which Israel killed about 15,000 and displaced more than 800,000 from their homes. The video game is a “creative approach to storytelling,” the bot said, although the Israeli narrative of the Nakba is that it was a “war of annihilation” done by five major Arab armies against Israel to push “Jews into the ocean.” 

The AI Bot For Facts Promotes Israel’s False Propaganda Against Gaza

After examining Fact Finder’s posts, Misbar found that the bot repeats specific words in its replies to pro-Palestinian posts, such as Israel attacks aim to “ensure the safety of Israeli citizens,” which could be found in hundreds of the bot’s posts.

Misbar noticed that the bot was developed to promote propaganda in favor of Israel. It casts doubt on the Gaza Health Ministry’s death toll—a claim Misbar repeatedly debunked throughout the war.

The bot amplifies Israeli claims that Hamas uses civilians as human shields while focusing on posts condemning Hamas and viewing the group as a malevolent force tormenting Palestinians in Gaza, despite the misleading nature of such posts.

In its reply to Eyal Yakoby's post, an X influencer known for his strong support for Israel, the bot said that Hamas is “hunting down” Palestinians in Gaza and that the group disregards the lives of innocent civilians. The bot was replying to a misleading post acknowledging the disinformation of Yakoby’s against Hamas.

Yakoby took a screenshot of a tweet from the Gaza Now Telegram channel saying that Hamas executed six traitors and has a list of more than 380 people who are going to be punished for participating in the war against Palestinians in acts like treason for the sake of Israel, stealing the humanitarian aid, and raising prices of food products.

The Fact Finder bot and Yakoby ignored classifying the people Hamas is going to hunt down in their posts, confusing people. However, the categories of people Hamas executed or is going to punish are not “innocent civilians,” as the bot claimed.

Treason is a capital offense in several countries, including the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Merchants are expected to be punished for raising the prices of food products to high levels, preventing a large category of Gazans, who have lost their homes and properties and stopped working because of the war, from getting food to themselves and their families.

Thieves are also expected to be punished for participating in the famine that killed tens of Palestinians. Ismail Thwabteh, head of the Government Media Office in Gaza, has previously told Misbar that some of the looting gangs were coordinating with Israel to find out the location and types of aid trucks, in order to rob and steal them under the eyes of the Israeli air force.

In a separate incident, the bot spread false information claiming that the population of Gaza had not decreased due to the genocide.

Official statistics refute this claim. According to the official Palestinian statistics agency, the population of Gaza has fallen 6 percent since Israel launched its devastating war against the Gaza Strip.

The fall is due to the huge number of casualties killed by Israeli attacks, estimated to be about 50,000 people, according to the latest statistics provided by the Gaza Health Ministry as of February 8 in addition to the thousands of missing. According to estimates, over 10,000 people are missing or buried under the rubble. The large number of Palestinians who have left the Strip since the start of the war contributed to the fall too. About 100,000 people have left the Strip, whether to flee the war or to get treated for the war’s injuries, as the injured in Gaza are reportedly over 111,500.

It bears noting that in the aforementioned post, the bot described Israel’s war on Gaza as ‘genocide’ although the Israeli narrative of this war is that it is not. Netanyahu claims that the number of casualties is one of “the lowest ratios of combatants to non-combatant casualties in the history of urban warfare.”

In addition to targeting Palestine with propaganda, the bot seems to have glitches causing it to spread misleading news about the latest events concerning both sides. In many posts about a recent event, the bot described the information as misleading and inaccurate.

Replying to a post saying that the three Israeli prisoners: Eli Sharabi, Ehud Ben-Ami, and Or Levy, will be released by Hamas on Saturday, Feb. 8, the bot denied the piece of news saying that there are “no confirmed releases as of now.” However, the news of the three named Israelis was true and reported by Israeli sites.

Previously, the bot denied the bombing of an official working for the French Foreign Ministry, claiming that the Israeli army takes measures to protect civilians. However, the murder of the official was confirmed by France and reported by several renowned outlets, such as Reuters.

Such posts turned the bot into an AI propaganda machine.

The Pro-Israel Bot is Ofent Self-Contradictory 

Notably, Fact Finder contradicts itself repeatedly which could be due to a glitch in the system.

For instance, the bot refuted the conference in which Trump expressed his ideas about the plan to “take over Gaza.” In other posts, however, the bot described the plan as unviable and acknowledged that the conference occurred.

The bot was supportive of a fact-checker’s job in combating the Israeli propaganda at first, repeating the terms “propagandists” and “oppressors” which referred to Israel. Then, the bot contradicted itself justifying Israel’s propaganda by saying that Israel is committed to protecting its citizens.

Although the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel took effect last month, the bot continues to reference it in the future tense. It replied to Al Jazeera’s post about the fragility of the ceasefire saying that Netanyahu is focused on discussing a “potential ceasefire with Hamas.” However, in its previous posts, the bot acknowledged that the ceasefire took effect.

While it is unclear whether this bot is linked to a larger organization or independently developed by Israeli AI specialists, the bot serves as part of hundreds of accounts publishing propaganda and misinformation online.

Misbar has previously identified a network of 9 accounts on X publishing Israeli propaganda concerning the Gaza War. The accounts published similar content across the X platform, including similar media that led to the misrepresentation of the situation in Gaza after the ceasefire took effect.

Such propaganda is promoted and encouraged by the Israeli government. The Israeli Foreign Ministry is reportedly pumping over $150 million to sway international public opinion in its 2025 budget, a budget 20 times larger than previous ones.

Read More

Misbar Investigates Misinformation Following the Gaza Ceasefire Announcement

Artificial Intelligence Models: Balancing Benefits and Risks