Meta Platforms’ Shut Down Israeli AI Campaign
Meta shut down an AI marketing campaign applauding Israel for its decision in the Palestinian-Israeli war.
- The deceptive content was posted in the comment section of global news organizations and U.S. lawmakers.
- It traced the AI campaign back to a Tel-Aviv-based political marketing company, STOIC.
Meta halted an AI campaign that posted content praising Israel’s actions during the Israeli-Palestinian war, safeguarding the voices of real people.
The recent events in the Palestinian-Israeli war have been the most publicized ones in the 75 years that it has been going on. Social media played a key role in this exposure, shoving the atrocities in the face of the West and the uneducated and opening an online conversation about it. And when cloaked in anonymity, people are not kind; they can be downright cruel.
The tech giant found “likely AI-generated” content on Facebook and Instagram. The comments from the AI campaign, posing as African American and Jewish students, admired Israel’s handling of the war in Palestine. And to maximize exposure, they were left underneath global news organizations’ and U.S. lawmakers’ posts.
A Job Well Done
Not only did Meta stop the AI campaign, but it also traced it back to STOIC, a political marketing company in Tel Aviv.
Meta’s head of threat investigations Mike Dvilyanski bragged that “there are several examples across these networks of how they use likely generative AI tooling to create content. Perhaps it gives them the ability to do that quicker or to do that with more volume. But it hasn’t really impacted our ability to detect them,”
The team also shut down an Iran-based network, however, there was no indication that AI was used in that marketing campaign.
AI, Misinformation, and Political Power
When we spoke over the span of several articles about the dangers of AI and misinformation about elections and public perception, we did not mean videos of Biden kicking puppies. This is what we meant: AI campaigns where it masquerades as average people, amplifying a certain narrative and muting the voices of real people. Anyone can weaponize AI technology in their marketing strategies. Meta did nib this in the bud, but had it turned a blind eye to it, it would have escalated greatly.
You see, the way discourse, including politics, works is that people talk pro, anti, and on the fence. And unfortunately, the louder you are, the more likely you are to be heard. So, by showing up in the comment sections of popular accounts, these comments are sowing seeds of discord among the tens of thousands of users. In some instances, seeing your opinion on there will encourage you to share yours. “We were all thinking it, I just said it out loud.” The cycle continues until the noise is so loud that it swallows all other opinions or facts.
Beyond manipulating the public perception, when these unsavory comments pose as members of certain groups of people, they give bigots justifications for their hatred. Someone can take these comments as evidence to justify their antisemitism, which is already a problem on the platforms.
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