Digital Rights Weekly Update: 10 - 16 October

7amleh Releases Position Paper Exposing How Disinformation Is Reshaping the Reality of Palestinian Youth amid Genocide

7amleh

October 15, 2025, 7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media has released a new position paper titled “A War Without Bullets: How Disinformation Reshapes the Reality of Palestinian Youth on the Backdrop of a Genocide?” The paper examines how disinformation has become one of the central tools of Israel’s war on Gaza—not only to justify genocide but also to reengineer the collective consciousness of both Palestinians and the global public, particularly among youth. The paper highlights that information has become a parallel battlefield to military operations. The Israeli government has deployed various digital tools—including artificial intelligence, paid propaganda, cyberattacks, fake accounts, algorithmic manipulation, and press censorship—to create a distorted reality that reshapes truth and legitimizes aggression. Disinformation, it argues, is no longer a symptom of media bias but a deliberate strategy to dominate consciousness and control narratives serving Israel’s political and military interests.

Google email shows it ruled Israel’s ads claiming ‘There is food in Gaza’ aren’t misleading

The Washington Post

In August, two days after the United Nations-backed global hunger monitor declared a rapidly spreading famine in the Gaza City region, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a YouTube video that made an opposite claim: “Cynical politicians and biased media are lying.” The Aug. 24 video showed people selling fruit, vegetables, bread and sweets at a well-stocked street market, with a date label of July-August. “There is food in Gaza,” on-screen text said, “Any other claim is a lie.” Israel’s government paid to promote the video in three languages, and it has been viewed more than 7 million times in English, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ YouTube channel. The video was last shown as an advertisement on Aug. 29. Though the market footage was captured in Gaza City in July, a Post review found it was presented without important context. Several clips, which were originally published on Getty Images by a Palestinian photojournalist, show some of the first food that entered Gaza after months of restrictions by Israel, offered at high prices unaffordable to most Palestinians, according to the caption on the original footage.

Narrative warfare: Inside Israel's battle for influence on social media

The New Arab

What was supposed to be a quiet meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a cohort of pro-Israel influencers last month has had a loud impact, revealing what has been described as a desperate attempt by the government to polish Tel Aviv’s perception globally, amid mounting criticism for war crimes in Gaza. The influencers are estimated to have been paid around $7,000 per post across various platforms, all on Israel’s behalf, according to media reports. Records filed with the Department of Justice show that the Israeli government hired a firm called Bridges Partners LLC to manage the influencer network, which has been code-named “Esther Project”. Bridges states its work was to “assist with promoting cultural interchange between the United States and Israel,” while contracts show up to $900,000 in payments to be divided up over several months to cover upfront payments, concept development, influencer fees, production and agency costs.

The Destruction in Gaza Is What the Future of AI Warfare Looks Like

Gizmodo

In 2021, Israel used “the Gospel” for the first time. That was the codename for an AI tool deployed in the 11-day war against Gaza that the IDF has since deemed the first artificial intelligence war. The conclusion of that war didn’t end the conflict between Israel and Palestine, but it was a sign of things to come. The Gospel rapidly spews out a mounting list of potential buildings to target in military strikes by reviewing data from surveillance, satellite imagery, and social networks. That was four years ago, and the field of artificial intelligence has since experienced one of the most rapid periods of advancement in the history of technology. Marking two years on Tuesday, Israel’s latest offensive on Gaza has been called an “AI Human Laboratory” where the weapons of the future are tested on live subjects.

The Eighth Front: Israel’s digital Iron Dome and the narrative battle

The Cardle

Show Faith by Works, a new company established in July 2025, received $325,000 in just two months to promote Israeli propaganda among Christian communities in the US and west. With plans to spend as much as $4.1 million on the campaign, it has been billed as the “largest Christian Church Geofencing Campaign in US history.” Meanwhile, the Israeli Foreign Ministry injected an additional $137 million into global perception-shaping campaigns, on top of regular image-boosting programs. These initiatives form part of a larger strategy often referred to as “hasbara” – a Hebrew term for Israel’s public diplomacy and propaganda efforts. In the digital era, hasbara has evolved from conventional media narratives into sophisticated AI-assisted influence operations designed to dominate and distort online discourse. A report by Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE, citing an investigation by Eurovision News Spotlight, revealed that the Israeli government allocated roughly $50 million in ad spending across Google, X, and French-Israeli ad networks Outbrain and Teads. 

Human rights groups demand answers from Microsoft on its role in Israel’s war on Gaza

Access Now

In a joint letter addressed to Microsoft on September 26, 2025, Access Now, alongside Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, and 7amleh, urged the company to immediately end any involvement with Israeli authorities’ systemic repression of Palestinians. The letter further calls on Microsoft to cease and prevent further contribution of its AI and cloud computing technologies to atrocity crimes, including the ongoing genocide committed against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.The letter follows a recent investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call revealing the extent to which Israel’s military intelligence unit, Unit 8200, has used Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure and AI technologies to store mass surveillance data, process intercepted communications, and power AI-driven targeting systems against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, potentially facilitating war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide.