Israel’s battle against misinformation and hate is overwhelming on most days.
During a war, it goes on overdrive.
By last measure, online anti-Semitism has spiked by a massive 1200% since October 7th.
When faced with a river of hate from legions of enemy countries and sympathizers, Israel’s Hasbara (positive PR) efforts are chronically understaffed, under-funded and under-equipped.
We’re used to relying on the IDF spokesperson, Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a smattering of PR networks in America to counter a monstrous and well-funded propaganda and misinformation engine in Iran, Gaza, Russia and other state-sponsored centers of Jew hate.
Since October 7th, there are certainly more Israelis and Jews than ever constantly posting, reposting, commenting, debating and otherwise engaging online to combat anti-Semitic and anti-Israel lies from the usual suspects.
The online war is looking marginally better, but we’re still starting far behind our enemies.
Enter Zachary Bamberger, an American oleh, Cornell graduate and current Masters student at CS Taub.
When he saw what was happening on October 7th, he sprang into action.
Using his prodigious talents in machine learning and love for debate, to fight the immediate onslaught of anti-Israel lies and anti-Semitism.
Instead of reflexively jumping onto Facebook or other social media to fight from the keyboard, he started building.
In only a few days, he enlisted the help of 40 Ph.D.s in his field to completely change the battlefield for social media disinformation.
Imagine AI being able to instantly check whether a post violates the terms of service (TOS) of the specific platform where it’s made.
Imagine the ability to report said post on the spot.
And if it doesn’t violate the TOS, to instantly generate the best counterargument?
Keep reading at technion.ac.il.
