An Al Jazeera investigation says an Israeli counter-film to NAZA was promoted with a fake view counter. The site showed 43.7 million views, while public platforms and traffic tools suggested far fewer.
01Summary
- 01The counter-film, a 49-minute work titled "NAZA: The Real Story", was made by Ariel Averbuch, Roy Danino and Hagai Gutman.
- 02By 14 October, the film’s website showed 43,758,421 views, while the full version on YouTube had not passed 130,000 views.
- 03Semrush estimated the site had about half a million visits by 8 October, while Similarweb estimated 326 visits in September.
- 04The site’s source code showed the counter was labelled "visitors" internally but shown to users as "views", and it began at 97% of its value before counting up for three seconds.
- 05The Israeli Embassy in Washington promoted the film on 3 October, and Tzipi Hotovely said it had received tens of millions of views.
02Why it matters
The story raises questions about how official Israeli accounts used social media metrics to promote a politically charged film. It also shows how easily large online numbers can shape public debate during the war in Gaza.
Pulse AIAsk about this story
Answers are generated by AI from the story summary; they are not investment, health or legal advice.
