{"id":37195,"date":"2024-10-22T13:50:22","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T20:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=37195"},"modified":"2024-10-22T13:50:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T20:50:23","slug":"disinformation-campaigns-aimed-at-arab-americans-and-american-jews-in-battleground-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/10\/22\/disinformation-campaigns-aimed-at-arab-americans-and-american-jews-in-battleground-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Disinformation Campaigns Aimed at Arab Americans and American Jews in Battleground States"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Disinformation Campaigns Aimed at Arab Americans and American Jews in Battleground States<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. James J. Zogby \u00a9\u00a0(aaiusa.org)
President\u00a0
Arab American Institute\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the run-up to the November election, we are witnessing a massive expenditure of \u201cdark money\u201d in a disinformation campaign designed to depress the Arab American vote in Michigan and the American Jewish vote in Pennsylvania. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the past three election cycles we\u2019ve seen \u201cdark money\u201d play an increasingly important role in US elections. Dark money refers to expenditures from groups that ostensibly operate independently from official campaigns and whose funds need not be reported. We\u2019ve also seen disinformation campaigns before; that is, organized efforts to use deceptive, misleading, or exaggerated claims for political advantage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dark money group undertook such an effort in 2000, when it sought to derail Bernie Sanders\u2019 presidential campaign with a sizable television ad buy claiming he was too old (despite the fact that the candidate against whom he was running was about the same age), or that he was too radical to win (despite the fact that Sanders had already won most of that year\u2019s primaries and polls showed him beating the expected Republican nominee by a larger margin than any of the other Democrats in the field). What made the effort more dishonest was that the group sponsoring the ads was the Democratic Majority for Israel. They wanted to defeat Sanders because they didn\u2019t trust his more balanced approach to the Middle East.\u202f But knowing that argument wouldn\u2019t win over Democratic voters, they never mentioned Israel in their ads\u2014a clear case of using both disinformation and misinformation for a political end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That effort\u2019s success encouraged more pro-Israel dark money groups to join the fray in 2022 and 2024, spending well over $100 million in more than a dozen congressional races. Once again, they promoted misleading or exaggerated claims calling into question the character or leadership qualities of the candidates they opposed without ever mentioning that their goal was to defeat those whom they deemed insufficiently pro-Israel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we\u2019re seeing in this election is more dark money disinformation, but with a deceptively ingenious twist. A pro-Donald Trump group is spending tens of millions of dollars targeting both Arab American and American Jewish voters in two battleground states, Michigan and Pennsylvania, with contradictory messaging designed to discourage them from voting for the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris. This effort includes direct mail, and digital ads on social media platforms like: X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook.\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost daily, Michigan\u2019s Arab Americans voters in precincts of heavy concentration are receiving glossy mailings with messages like: \u201cKamala Harris and Doug Emhoff: Unwavering Support for Israel\u201d or \u201cKamala Harris and Doug Emhoff, the ultimate pro-Israel power couple\u201d or \u201cKamala Harris and Elissa Slotkin [the Democratic candidate for Senate in Michigan]: The proven team we can trust to stand up for the Jewish community.\u201d\u202f And targeted video messaging on social media sites saying things like \u201cKamala Harris stands with Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, in areas of Pennsylvania where there are heavy concentrations of Jewish voters, homes are receiving messages like: \u201cKamala Harris will embolden anti-Semites\u201d or \u201cDonald Trump always stands up for the Jewish people.\u201d And targeted video messaging on social media platforms saying \u201cKamala Harris will not be silent about human suffering in Gaza\u201d or \u201cTwo-faced Kamala Harris: Standing with Palestine and not our ally, Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These mailings and social media posts are paid for by a dark money group, Future Coalition PAC. Researchers have identified that one of the major donors to this group is Elon Musk, the principal owner of X and a strong supporter of Donald Trump\u2019s presidential bid.\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to note that the videos used in these ads contain Harris speeches in which she, in fact, makes statements that are very supportive of Israel and others in which she expresses sympathy with Palestinians suffering in Gaza or the right of students on campuses to protest injustice.\u202fWhat makes this effort classic disinformation is the selective use of these quotes and the way they are used to make exaggerated claims in an effort to mislead targeted groups of voters, discouraging their support for the Democratic candidate.\u202fTo look at it in another way, we can ask, \u201cWhat would be the impact of these ads if they were reversed, with Arab American voters targeted with the pro-Palestinian ads and American Jewish voters targeted with the pro-Israel ads? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disinformation has long been a problem in American elections. Now with massive expenditures from dark\u202f groups and their ability to use advanced micro-targeting to identify and deceive specific\u202fvoter\u202fgroups\u202fusing their social media behavior, what was a problem has now become a crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am reminded that on two separate occasions in the last two years a group of Democratic National Committee members tried to get the party to ban the use of dark money in primaries. We warned that allowing billionaire Republican donors to skew our elections with disinformation and misinformation was a threat to our democracy. Both times the party leadership blocked our effort to have a vote on our resolution. Little did we know that just a year later, the very dark money disinformation effort funded by Republican donors about which we warned could very well contribute to upending the campaign of the Democratic nominee for president. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Arab American Institute. The Arab American Institute is a non-profit, nonpartisan national leadership organization that does not endorse candidates.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: To discuss this column with me, please<\/em> register here<\/a> for my next \u2018Coffee And A Column\u2019 event Wednesday via Zoom.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This column is exclusive for @TheNational and James Zogby. It cannot be republished without permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disinformation Campaigns Aimed at Arab Americans and American Jews in Battleground States  Dr. James J. Zogby \u00a9\u00a0(aaiusa.org)President\u00a0Arab American Institute\u00a0 In the run-up to the November election, we are witnessing a massive expenditure of \u201cdark money\u201d in a disinformation campaign designed to depress the Arab American vote in Michigan and the… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37196,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37195\/revisions\/37196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}