Israel Sees 955% Surge in Election Day Mobile Spam as Parties Flood Networks
Israeli mobile networks experienced a 955% surge in blocked spam texts on election morning, with The Democrats leading campaign messaging volume as parties flooded phones.
A massive surge in political spam messages has hit Israeli mobile networks on election day, with the volume of blocked SMS campaigns jumping by 955%, according to data released by security firm Fisherman Security.
Fisherman Security, which develops an automated spam-blocking smartphone application installed on thousands of devices across the country, reported that nearly two out of every three incoming messages (65.1%) consisted of election propaganda, pushing the blocked message rate to 78%.
As of 10:00 AM, The Democrats (HaDemokratim) led the volume with 23.1% of all spam texts, followed by Yashar! with 12.2% and Otzma Yehudit with 11.8%. Notably, Likud accounted for just 0.3% of the identified political spam messages.
Earlier in the day, Cellcom reported that 213 million text messages traversed its network yesterday, compared to just 120 million on the eve of the 2022 elections.
Matan Gindian, CEO of Fisherman Security, highlighted the unprecedented nature of the digital campaign:
« We are witnessing an unprecedented election day in terms of mobile spam and propaganda volumes. The dramatic 1,000% spike in blocked messages this morning, combined with the adoption of technological methods to bypass filters typically seen in cyber-scams, demonstrates how the mobile space has become the central battleground for parties in these decisive hours. »
