Related news:
An investigation by The Electronic Intifada has revealed that the online publication
Israel21c is hiring students as “digital ambassadors” to plant its stories in online discussion forums and social media without revealing that they work for the publication.
Israel21c is part of propaganda efforts aimed to improve Israel’s image and distract from Israel’s occupation, abuse and massacres of Palestinians.
Deceptive methods
....
Posing as a student interested in this internship, The Electronic Intifada spoke over the phone to a publicist responsible for recruitment.
He explicitly confirmed their intent to use deceptive methods.
Sam Bialosky of the public relations consultancy Miller Ink said, when posting their stories “you wouldn’t directly reference that you’re interning for
Israel21c.” Bialosky made it clear to The Electronic Intifada’s undercover reporter: “that would sort of defeat the point of posting it.”
....
“What would be your job is to push that article out on social media,” Bialosky explained: “point to this sort of article on a community website, on a message board. Sort of a – ‘oh hey,’ you know, ‘you should look at this, here’s some good information on that.’”
Spin
Bialosky clarified that the goal of the program was not just to plant stories in the tech media, but in other specialist press too: “when a story about autism pops up … we’d like for that article to pop up on, say, I think its Autism Daily Digest.” This was possibly a reference to
Autism Asperger’s Digest, a magazine about the neurodevelopmental condition.
Israel tech site paying interns to covertly plant stories in social media The Electronic Intifada
I see.
So this spinal cord injuries thing ...