Act.IL
Pro-Israel "online community" app, launched in 2017 by IDC Herzliya and the Israeli American Council with Ministry of Strategic Affairs backing, that set users social-media "missions"
| Act.IL
| |
|---|---|
| Logo |  App Store icon |
| Type | Smartphone app and online campaign |
| Founded | June 2017 |
| Founder(s) | Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and Israeli American Council |
| Dissolved | March 2022 (app closed); relaunched as RiseApp (2026) |
| Location | Herzliya, Israel |
| Services | Social-media "missions" for pro-Israel users |
| Key people | Yarden Ben-Yosef (founder and CEO); Shoham Nicolet |
Act.IL (also written Act.il) was a smartphone app and "online community" that set its users "missions" to promote pro-Israel content and oppose the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement on social media. Typical missions were to comment, share, "like" or report posts. It was a joint project of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC, now Reichman University) and the Israeli American Council (IAC). It was launched in June 2017 as part of "4IL", a campaign of Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs.[1][2] The app closed in March 2022.[3] In 2026 Reichman University relaunched it as "RiseApp".[4]
Act.IL's operators described it as a civilian, grassroots effort that was "not government-supported".[1] Press reports documented the involvement of former Israeli intelligence officers, the ministry and donors linked to Sheldon Adelson.[5][6] A 2024 academic study calls it "a now-defunct government-backed crowdsourcing app".[7]
Origins
According to Ynet, Act.IL grew out of a volunteer "operations room" set up at IDC by the law student Yarden Ben-Yosef during Operation Pillar of Defence (2012). It was reopened during Operation Protective Edge (2014), when, according to Ben-Yosef, about 1,000 mostly student volunteers produced content in 35 languages. Ben-Yosef then met Shoham Nicolet, founder of the IAC, and the two organisations launched the app.[1] Ben-Yosef told Ynet that the pilot removed "2-5 inciting pages or videos every week" through mass reporting. He said: "We're working with the IDF and the Shin Bet, who are giving us information on such inciting content".[1]
The app's App Store listing named the developer as Rallyware.[8]
Government links
Minister Gilad Erdan unveiled 4IL in New York at the Celebrate Israel parade in 2017. He called it the "Iron Dome of Truth".[2] In November 2017 the Forward described Act.IL as "a hybrid Israel advocacy effort and online information operation" that "is led by former Israeli intelligence officers and has close ties to Israel's intelligence services, its Ministry of Strategic Affairs and American Jewish casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson". It also reported:[5]
- Ben-Yosef, "an eight-year veteran of Israeli army intelligence", first said the army and the Shin Bet "request" Act.IL's help in getting videos removed. He later said they were in regular informal contact: "We talk with each other. We work together."
- The ministry had placed paid articles promoting the app. Ben-Yosef said the ministry was a partner but did not order specific missions, and that his team was on a ministry email list highlighting chosen issues. A ministry spokesman said Act.IL "is a separate entity from the Ministry of Strategic Affairs".
- The Maccabee Task Force, the Adelson-backed anti-BDS fundraising group, was "a major funder".
The American Conservative quoted Ben-Yosef telling Forbes Israel in 2018: "We work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, consult with them and manage joint projects."[4]
The Seventh Eye reported in 2020 that Act.il was among the winners of a Genesis Prize Foundation grant competition. Kela Shlomo and the ministry had put NIS 5.7 million into that competition, which the site called "a creative manoeuvre that allowed them to support organisations without paying them directly" (translated from Hebrew).[9]
Campaigns
- Gaza border protests, May 2018: the Forward reported that the app directed users to "like" pro-Israel comments on Facebook posts by news outlets about the killing of protesters at the Gaza border. Act.IL-boosted comments became the top comments on "more than a dozen posts", including posts by CNN and the Wall Street Journal. The paper said "some of the comments are false or misleading".[10]
- Gaza escalation, May 2019: the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) monitored missions on 4–5 May 2019. It found that "out of a userbase of 17,500, the app elicited approximately 300 publicly trackable pageviews and 243 Facebook interactions" for its emergency landing page, and "an average of only 12 retweets" per amplified tweet. It concluded that the app's effectiveness "has been overstated by champions and critics alike".[2]
- Amnesty International, 2022: missions in early 2022 targeted Amnesty International's report on Israeli apartheid.[3][7]
Closure and relaunch
Act.IL closed the app in March 2022, telling users it was "decommissioning the App" to keep "up with the evolving trends of social media".[3] Michael Bueckert of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East had monitored the app for almost five years through the Twitter account "Behind Israel's Troll Army". He told +972 Magazine that its unclear origins were part of a "no logo" strategy allowing the authorities to "choreograph social media activity without having the source identified".[6]
In a 2024 open-access volume, Marwa Fatafta describes Act.IL as "a now-defunct government-backed crowdsourcing app" that "directed online pro-Israel volunteers on 'missions' to report anti-Israel content on social media so it would be deleted". She gives BDS and Amnesty International as targets.[7]
In May 2026 The American Conservative reported that Reichman University had relaunched the project as "RiseApp". It said the university's website describes RiseApp as aiming to mobilise Act.IL's database of "more than 40,000" users.[4]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Ynet, A lesson in hasbara Ynetnews, 27 June 2017, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 DFRLab, How a "Political Astroturfing" App Coordinates Pro-Israel Influence Operations Digital Forensic Research Lab, Atlantic Council, 19 August 2019, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Michael Arria, Israel's anti-BDS app has been deactivated Mondoweiss, 11 March 2022, accessed 21 October 2026. Critical.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Harrison Berger, Israel Relaunches, Rebrands Online Propaganda Campaign The American Conservative, 21 May 2026, accessed 21 October 2026. Critical.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Josh Nathan-Kazis, Israeli App Makes American Jews Online Foot Soldiers The Forward, 30 November 2017, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Natasha Roth-Rowland, Mission failed: How Israel's anti-BDS app went belly-up +972 Magazine, 25 April 2022, accessed 21 October 2026 (Wayback Machine capture). Critical.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Marwa Fatafta, "Digital Repression: How Palestinian Voices are Censored, Surveilled, and Threatened Online", in Zaha Hassan and H.A. Hellyer (eds), Suppressing Dissent: Shrinking Civic Space, Transnational Repression and Palestine–Israel (2024), pp. 135–150, at p. 138; open-access PDF OAPEN Library, accessed 21 October 2026 (Wayback Machine copy). Critical.
- ↑ Apple App Store, Act.IL listing, Wayback Machine capture of 1 December 2021, accessed 21 October 2026.
- ↑ The Seventh Eye, פרויקט הדגל של המשרד לנושאים אסטרטגיים נכשל; ארגון התעמולה "קלע שלמה" לא הצליח לגייס כספים ("The Ministry of Strategic Affairs' flagship project failed; the propaganda organisation 'Kela Shlomo' did not manage to raise funds") The Seventh Eye, 29 July 2020 (Hebrew), accessed 21 October 2026 (Wayback Machine capture). Critical.
- ↑ Josh Nathan-Kazis, Pro-Israel App Targets Media Posts On Gaza Bloodshed The Forward, 18 May 2018, accessed 21 October 2026.