“Contact us”: a Facebook page claiming to be from “Mossad” targets the Lebanese

A Facebook page, under the name “The Mossad”, the Israeli foreign intelligence service, uses targeted advertisements to ask people in Lebanon to get in touch with it, amid the conflict between Hezbollah and the Jewish state continues in South Lebanon, in the wake of the war in Gaza that began on October 7.

According to Mohammad Najem, executive director of SMEX, a Lebanese NGO that defends human rights in digital spaces, the page, which is verified by a blue checkmark (a verification that can nevertheless be purchased by subscription), belongs to “d ‘one way or another to Israeli intelligence services’, although it is not mentioned on the agency’s official website, and believes that all of the page’s administrators are based in Israel. On the cover photo of the Facebook page, we can read: “Contact us, we are here to listen to you”. While the page’s first post was published in 2018, “The Mossad” only became active this year and now has around 23,000 followers.

This comes as cross-border tensions between Hezbollah and Israel have escalated over the past week, following nearly nine months of near-daily exchanges of fire between the two sides. At least 470 people have been killed in Lebanon (including 352 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and Syria) and 27 in Israel, since the conflict began.

Advertisements that “violate Lebanese laws”.

On June 19, “The Mossad” page published an ad with a photo of a woman and a caption saying: “Call us, we are waiting for you. It’s time for you (…) to change your life, send us a message and you won’t regret it. For your safety, do not “like” this post. Write to us privately. »

According to Mr. Najem, it appears that these ads are “not illegal under Meta’s rules.” But he believes that they “should be illegal because they constitute a violation of Lebanese laws”. The Lebanese law of 1955 on the boycott of Israel prohibits any natural or legal person from coming into contact with Israelis or people residing in Israel. It also prohibits any commercial, financial or other transaction. Violation of this law is punishable by three to ten years of forced labor. For the expert, “Meta has the responsibility to protect its users and not allow other security agencies, especially in a situation like that of Lebanon and Israel, to target people with advertisements.” L’Orient Today contacted Meta for comment, but has not yet received a response. As for the security sources that our publication contacted, they claimed to have no information on this page.

For legal consultant Janane el-Khoury, the ads on the “The Mossad” page could be used to recruit people in Lebanon on behalf of Israel and spy on the Lebanese. She recalls that “Israel is at the forefront of cybersecurity (…). Recent years have shown that it uses cyberspace against Lebanon, in particular to recruit agents and communicate with them, or to collect information on its targets in Lebanon. Israeli use of cyberspace has also been demonstrated by the installation of a large number of spy systems on Lebanese territories.”

Lebanese security forces arrested 185 people suspected of “collaboration” with Israel between 2019 and the end of 2022, according to AFP. Since the start of the Gaza war, Israel has carried out several targeted assassinations against members of Hezbollah and Hamas. God’s party is worried about being infiltrated by agents working on behalf of Israel. Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, warned his supporters, during a speech given on February 13, against the risks linked to smartphones, calling them a “controllable spying device” and asking the inhabitants of South Lebanon to to throw them “.

How to remove these ads?

But how can you protect yourself against these advertisements? Mohammad Najem advises to “block or report” them and not respond to them. As for Professor Khoury, she invites Internet users to “inform the relevant security agencies when they receive a suspicious communication” and to “protect their personal data to prevent it from being violated by Israel”.

Lebanon ranked 109th out of 182 countries in the 2020 Global Cybersecurity Index prepared by the International Telecommunication Union. Israel ranked 36th. In January, Beirut International Airport suffered a serious cyberattack targeting several of its computer systems.

According to the expert, there is a “lack of institutional effort in Lebanon and a unified strategy to advance this sector” at a time when “cybersecurity has become an essential part of the various national security systems and a necessary condition for deal with different types of cyberattacks. She asks the government to update its general policy in the information and communication technologies sector. A “general vision, specific goals and priority objectives” should be established, according to her, to “prevent Israeli intrusions”. As for Mohammad Najem, he asks the Lebanese government to “reach out to Meta and ask him not to allow (these) advertisements to exist”. Contacted by our publication, the Ministry of Telecommunications and that of Information were not immediately available to comment on this matter.