New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress, criticized a reported clandestine campaign by the Israeli government that aimed to influence him and other Black Democratic U.S. lawmakers as “embarrassing” and “racist.”
The effort, as per a report in The New York Times, was orchestrated by Israel’s Diaspora Ministry and targeted members of Congress and the U.S. public with a pro-Israel social media campaign using hundreds of fake social media profiles.
The operation, in collaboration with Stoic, a Tel Aviv-based marketing firm, began in October and continued at least until this week, according to the Times. Involving multiple fake news sites and the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, the operation urged lawmakers to fund Israel’s military effort. (It also included some missteps, such as accounts supposedly of Black men posting as a “middle-aged Jewish woman.”)
The campaign focused on several members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Torres, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, the report said.