They are opinionated, know how to convey messages and are convinced that their words can move mountains • But many Twitter tweets - left and right - choose to hide behind a fake profile for fear of harming their livelihoods, exclusion from close society where they are in the minority, and even threats against them and their families
Photo:
Illustration: Niv Tishbi
Social networks are full of unidentified profiles.
They are there, hiding behind the keyboard, some under fictitious names, others under nicknames, most of them presenting a picture that will not reveal their identity.
Some of these profiles may be powered by automated systems ("bots"), but many are powered by real people, flesh and blood, and any thread or average discussion encounters such profiles.
To understand what characterizes those anonymous tweeters and what their activity pattern is (we focused on the Twitter network, where the discussions are more lively and emotional) we dived into the world of five profiles.
Why on the one hand it is so important for them to be present, active, kicking, shouting and reacting, and on the other hand to remain anonymous, behind disguise.
Many of those I contacted refused to be interviewed.
"It's not for me," one wrote to me;
"If I were exposed my life would be destroyed," explained another;
And a third admitted that "I can only tell you that the reason I'm anonymous is that I'm scared. Maybe it's not seen but I'm a sensitive person who takes to heart.
Those who did agree to be interviewed did so via Twitter's private message box.
I did not try to reveal the identities of tweeters and even asked the few who wanted to volunteer some information not to do so.
Anonymous, so as not to hurt the business
"Enough of hypocrisy" is a profile that expresses right-wing positions, its logo is a screenshot of a foreshadowing system message blocked by Ehud Barak, which he sees as an achievement.
He is a convert who currently lives in an ultra-Orthodox area, owns a business, has a family and children.
"I came because of the hatred for the ultra-Orthodox that exists on the Internet and also because of what they do to Yair (Netanyahu), it drove me crazy," he explains, "I am a guy who repented many years ago and remembers all kinds of TV shows that abused him quite a bit. Today, when I am a father, I understand what He has passed and understands his anger at the media. "
His conversion took place at about the age of 22, after the army, when a lot of questions began to arise in him.
Always, as a secularist, his inner feeling was one of failure.
"I asked myself - was all this great thing created without meaning? I researched all kinds of religions and left Judaism to the end," he says, "When I saw an ultra-Orthodox child I would feel sorry for him. Poor thing, what a cute house this is going to grow ... And that's how I raised my children. "
He says he has always been on the right side of the political map, but "soft right," as he defines it.
Since the disengagement ("the deportation of Gush Katif," in his words), it has moved even further to the right.
He does not spare his opinions from the surfing public, but he keeps his identity to himself: "I have an independent business. I have a business page on Facebook and there are some people who are anti-Bibi who do not know how to separate business from politics. Add to that my children in Talmud Torah, and I do not want To be in the front, I have already been mentioned in Haaretz and the N12, it is better that the situation remains as it is.
"I have not yet been hurt because of my views, but I know that if I express them publicly in my true identity it will happen. Visually, when you see me, they say it probably points to the ultra-Orthodox parties - and it's true - but do not know I am definitely in favor of Bibi and invests free time Our best. "
"Enough of hypocrisy" feels that he is moving things in his activity and that some of his tweets have influenced the discourse.
He recognized, for example, that activists portrayed in propaganda videos as "former Likud voters" were in fact veteran leftists and flooded old videos of Tommy Lapid in which he criticized the State Attorney's Office, unlike his son Yair.
"I ask readers to always research what they read, not to take the media for granted," he says, "our opinions are shaped by the editors' wishes, and it is important to research before reaching conclusions."
Facebook?
To uncles and aunts
"Bat" is in his 20s, a medical student from the center, maintaining the anonymity of a professional party.
"People tend to think that the 'Pike' profile gives opinions that are 'Pike', but in my opinion the opposite is true," he says. "When you are anonymous you are actually more real. You can write without fear of what your future employer, senior doctors in my case, will do if they read the Your views on them. "
Avishai Ben Haim // Photo: Miriam Tzachi
Has it happened to you or someone you know who was hurt because of opinions he expressed online?
"I think my generation is already aware of all the traces it leaves on the internet, so you see a lot of anonymous profiles. The Twitter platform also allows this. Facebook is mostly for 'boomers', I have no friends who write there about politics, only uncles and aunts. So neither I knew people who were personally hurt. "
You write mostly on medical matters, corona and the like. Is there a reason you're not involved in politics?
"I write about politics in the context of Corona mainly. For example, the scandalous opening of the education system after the closure. My niche is quite scientific, because in that I understand. Otherwise I have no added value and I will not be interesting."
Do you feel there is some kind of virtual community on the web? That despite the anonymity can you say you have friends here?
"Unequivocally yes. I am in daily contact with some interesting tweeters. Mostly doctors who have become my mentors but also from completely different fields such as lawyers and reporters."
Have you ever been hurt by a violent messiah on the net?
"My generation already has a filter for violent discourse (a kind of spam box like this), so I was actually harmed by another discourse, which is non-violent. Avishai Ben-Haim writes divisive things that just hurt me to read. Young people put the differences aside, but for some reason try to drip these messages To a generation that has already overcome them. "
What is so bothering you about Avishai Ben Haim?
"I belong to the hegemony that is not aware of its hegemony. I do not think that my friends who are not part of the hegemony, many of whom are smarter and more successful than me, have encountered obstacles I did not know myself. Avishai Ben Haim is welcome to continue preaching, but the young Israel 2020 grew differently."
Will you continue to tweet here even when you graduate?
"Good question. I think I would always like to be heard, I am such a person, whether on Twitter or elsewhere. I recommend readers to follow interesting tweeters, from different fields, or rather from the niche they are familiar with. I have a few bubbles exploding and I enjoy every moment. And follow me, the bat ! "
Listen, do not look
"Trinity" is a 50-year-old tweet from the Sharon region, and she is anonymous on Twitter for a completely different reason.
"I ran away from the whole virtual world. I was hurt by it," she says, "I was a network animal. My whole life was spread out all over the media. God graced me in blonde, blue eyes and long legs, but graced me in the head as well. And you don't see it (or read it). "In the virtual world, all you do is scroll."
So she got tired of the superficiality and reactions that mainly concerned her appearance and decided to move to the anonymous platform.
"I love the network, I have something to pass on, I decided it would be in a format they would not recognize and see me. I wanted to start over, to be accepted by who I am and not by how I look. I always say I can be the most real when I 'pike'."
Is there anything specific that if you were in your true identity you would not write?
"About my divorce, about my children."
Why this name, by the way? Trinity, the Holy Trinity.
"It's funny. I went out with someone I knew years ago on Facebook. He told me on Twitter. I was excited that I could be Pike. He opened a profile for me, invented a name and told me that if I was good enough in a year I would have 100 followers. And after a year I had 4,500 followers. It just happened. I have no goals and I do not call followers. Twitter filled me with periods when I needed him. He was a great partner ... "
Why Twitter and not another platform?
"Because it's the last one left that I'm not known for."
The 20 right readers
And there are those who are semi-anonymous, like the tweet "John Brown."
Anyone who knows him knows that he is the man behind the nickname, and he also writes a diverse and well-known left-wing activist.
What he is willing to tell you, the readers, is that he is an "Argentine, living in the south, a doctor of computer science and a lecturer." He borrowed the name from the hero of the slavery war in America who led the well-known raid on Percy, and became a martyr of slaves in the north Justice against what he defines as "occupation, oppression and dispossession" of the Palestinians. Under the same pen name he also writes in Haaretz and in several blogs.
"I write as a kind of anonymous because it's more convenient for me, there's something about relative anonymity that gives more freedom," he says.
Due to his areas of practice - which include criticism of security bodies - he fails to maintain complete anonymity: "Look, whoever wanted found me. A few years ago some gun dealer hired a private investigator who came to my workplace with a picture and walked around quite a bit until he found my name. "Then he came to my house."
In parentheses accompanying his name is written "Former Right".
I ask him about it.
"It's a joke," he says, "every now and then I change the parentheses. That was when all sorts of disappointed people wrote about it being left-wing and now they are no longer. I don't really believe them, so it's like a parody of it because no one is "I believe I was right-wing. The fact that they bother to say it also makes me laugh."
Is there something you are trying to achieve on Twitter that is not possible on other platforms like newspaper?
"I feel a lot of times I can sum up a 1,500 word article in two chained tweets, and maybe reach people who will never read it in the paper. It's hard to write something reasoned and long while you can write it funny in a few characters."
What is the main issue for you?
"Particularly interesting is the way the IDF manages to grant immunity to its soldiers who carry out a chain of killings of innocent people, so I wrote a series that analyzes IDF files and the way these acts are plastered. Although it is very difficult, my big advantage is that I only care to write about it. And really read these files, for the 20 people who read it - 10 of them to swear in talkbacks. "
A lot of times it's the right 20 people.
"You are right, I know, for example, that it is read in the military prosecutor's office. But over time it is more difficult for you to find motivation to write about the 21st case and then about the 22nd with the same conclusion."
Do you feel your tweets are making an impact?
"I don't think tweeting can change anything. The things that did affect were articles and blogs that appeared on my tweets as well, but the focus of that was not on Twitter."
The war is being waged on Twitter
"The Octopus Heather" lives in the central area and is around his 40s.
He too, like many other anonymous tweeters, hides his identity for fear of being harmed by his views.
"If I am exposed, this could have negative consequences for me," he says. "In the social and professional circles in which I live, there is usually a consensus regarding the political sphere. We have already seen that many powerful systems in the State of Israel monitor social networks. I prefer to stay out of it. ".
What made you join Twitter?
"I joined when a wave of right-wing blocking started on Facebook. I myself did not comment on politics and was not blocked, but I disliked what seemed to me to be a systematic silence of key right-wing speakers there. With the move to Twitter I started tweeting, and from there I gained followers, and now responsibility.
"There's something about the direct connection that Twitter allows you with various anchors. It sometimes creates a sense - maybe an illusion - that there is some weight to your stuff, that it's not just a calling voice in the Internet desert.
Can you give an example of such a notable case?
"There's a phenomenon on the net called 'Twitter Storm' - a kind of popular uprising of what's the base, a flurry of tweets for a few hours, which sometimes really have a real impact on decision makers. At least that's how it appears. A prominent example was the agreement to return / leave infiltrators, Netanyahu formed with the UN. Almost all the right-wing tweeters, including clear Netanyahu supporters, attacked the issue in a frothy foam, and that same evening the message passed and the move torpedoed.
Infiltrating the crescents
"In general, nowadays, the war of ideas and opinions is waged on Twitter. The prevailing propaganda on the right, as if we come to vote once every four years and that's our job, is just not right. It does not work. The arena must not be abandoned, and war must be returned all the time."