Muslim Brotherhood-Linked Online Network Impersonates Israelis Amid Ongoing War With Iran

As Iranian missile barrages continue to strike cities and towns across Israel, a coordinated network impersonating Israelis on the X social media platform is amplifying divisive narratives in Hebrew.

FDD researchers recently identified more than 100 accounts in this network exploiting the Iran war in apparent attempts to worsen cleavages in Israeli society. The accounts’ attributes and activities resemble those of a persistent influence campaign known as ISNAD, an Arabic word referring to a chain of individuals who transmit and authenticate Islamic traditions. Israeli researchers from Active Info and the operator of a WhatsApp news network serving Israel’s Haredi community first identified the network, according to a 2024 investigative report by the Israeli news outlet Haaretz, which also noted the network’s connection to the Muslim Brotherhood. Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) has also published several in-depth reports discussing ISNAD’s evolving narratives and tactics since 2024.

X should move quickly to investigate and remove this network, as it likely violates the platform’s policies on deceptive content.

Amplifying Narratives of Division

The accounts identified by FDD post primarily in Hebrew, with many accounts explicitly presenting themselves as Israelis. However, around one-third of accounts in the network connect to X via non-Israeli mobile apps and app stores, from regions including West Asia, North Africa, and Europe. X lists the remaining accounts in this network as “based in Israel” but flags nearly all of them as possibly using a proxy that masks their true location.

The accounts amplify divisive political and social narratives: criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, highlighting alleged Israeli security failures, claiming Israel’s democracy is collapsing, criticizing Israel’s Haredi population, and occasionally calling for a revolution. The accounts also appear to reuse a shared library of messages, distributing them across accounts with light paraphrasing, likely to evade detection that relies on exact duplicates.

After the U.S.-led war against Iran’s clerical regime was launched on February 28, the accounts began aggressively exploiting the conflict in their messaging. Between November 1 and February 28, less than 5 percent of their posts were Iran-related, compared with more than 20 percent once the war began. Many of these Iran-related posts aim to demoralize Israelis, highlighting the impact of Iranian strikes on Israel, claiming that Netanyahu dragged Israelis into the war, and even occasionally asserting that Israel cannot possibly win against Iran.

Historical Influence Operations Impersonating Israelis

A persistent online influence operation, ISNAD has impersonated Israelis on X and other platforms for several years. Analysis from the INSS has shown that ISNAD amplifies narratives criticizing the Israeli government, undermining the sense of public security, encouraging civic resistance, and exploiting divisive social issues. ISNAD also uses AI to generate content that is nearly but not precisely identical, making coordination harder to detect, and often replies to authentic Hebrew-language content rather than posting original material. These narratives and behaviors closely resemble those of the cluster of more than 100 accounts that FDD identified.

X Must Investigate and Act

Given the risk that designated or sanctioned actors may attempt to exploit major platforms, X should investigate whether the network is tied to prohibited entities and enforce its policies accordingly. Such an investigation is especially necessary given that the Treasury and State Departments designated multiple Muslim Brotherhood branches as terrorist organizations in January and March.

X should move quickly. However, a single takedown is not sufficient. X should monitor attempts by the network to reconstitute itself and apply persistent enforcement as new accounts associated with it emerge.

Max Lesser is a senior analyst on emerging threats at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD’s) Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI), where Emmerson Overell is the CCTI Project Coordinator. For more analysis from the authors and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_CCTI. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on foreign policy and national security.