Media sources have reported that users of the "YouTube" platform or mobile games in France have been exposed in recent days to numerous promotional videos produced by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aimed at rallying global public opinion in support of its position and against "Hamas." The French newspaper "Libération" revealed that Israel has spent millions of dollars to promote its narrative in the Gaza war and to "drown" French internet users in advertisements opposing the "Hamas" movement.
The digital marketing tool "Semrush" estimated the cost of Israeli promotional videos in France to be $4.6 million, making Paris the most targeted city with this content. The tool noted that "the peak of these views occurred over the weekend of October 14 and 15," one week after Hamas's surprise attack within Israel. "Libération" highlighted that the Israeli Foreign Ministry's campaign has achieved over 1.1 billion impressions for its promotional videos, reaching approximately 535 million French users.
It also noted that Israel invested $2.4 million to target viewers in Germany and $1.2 million for the British audience. The spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in France responded to this report by saying, "I am not aware of any specific targeting of the French people." He added, "We want to utilize platforms, including YouTube, to tell the truth about Hamas's horrific attack."
A representative from "Google," which owns the YouTube platform, stated, "We prevent advertisers from promoting videos that contain violent and offensive content. We have a strong policy against this." Social media platforms are facing accusations of double standards in the conflict between Israel and Gaza, as they allow the dissemination of content supporting Israel while sometimes banning images and videos supporting Palestinians.
