Each Like states: The way to the polls is through Facebook Israel today

Politicians already know: In order to reach as many voters as possible, one has to storm social networks • How much money have the parties' social teams invested?

• Special project

• On the way to the polls, the nets are stormed

  Photo: 

  Liron Moldovan

In the current election campaign, like the previous one, the most effective way to reach a specific voter is by properly using sponsored promotion on social media.

One of the tools that can be used to get an idea of ​​the dimensions of the phenomenon is Facebook's "ad library", through which it is possible to know which candidate, or which political entity, invested money in an election campaign on the social network, and how much money was invested.

The data collected by "Israel Today" indicate that from August 2019, a total of NIS 58,893,954 was invested in ads marked as dealing with political issues on Facebook platforms.

An analysis of the investment in the last 90 days (and a sample of pages in which sums of more than NIS 50,000 have been invested) shows that Gideon Saar and his party Tikva Hadash paid Facebook no less than NIS 1,447,682 to promote political posts.

In second place are the columns of Yair Lapid and his party Yesh Atid with an investment of NIS 1,076,955.

In third place is the page of the chairman of the right-wing party, Naftali Bennett, who spent NIS 903,240 on his personal page on promotion, and his friend Shirley Pinto, who spent NIS 69,541, joins the list. Together, the two spent a total of NIS 972,781 to promote the right-wing party.

In fourth place - the Facebook pages of the Meretz party (NIS 488,534) and the personal page of the party chairman Nitzan Horowitz (NIS 331,467), which together spent a total of NIS 820,001.

In fifth place is Bnei Gantz.

The chairman of Blue and White holds several different pages: Bnei Gantz (NIS 203,886), Israel First and foremost (NIS 173,599) and the Blue and White Party (NIS 134,037). Total: NIS 511,522.

In sixth place is Yaron Zelicha, chairman of the new economic party, who holds two pages: the main in the Hebrew language (NIS 452,430), and the second in Arabic - the economic - (NIS 57,218). Total: NIS 509,648.

In seventh place, the chairman of Yisrael Beiteinu, Avigdor Lieberman, whose pages he runs are a page in the Hebrew language (NIS 373,030) and a page in the Russian language (NIS 130,776). Total: NIS 503,806.

In eighth place, Labor chairman Merav Michaeli, whose personal column spent NIS 349,517 and her party column NIS 90,651. Total: NIS 440,168. In ninth place was Aryeh Deri, chairman of Shas, who invested NIS 340,183.

In tenth place: Netanyahu

Only in tenth place is the column of Benjamin Netanyahu, who spent NIS 280,195, and is joined by another Likud candidate, Nir Barkat, who spent NIS 52,951.

Together they spent NIS 333,146.

In 11th place is a candidate who has already retired, but not before he "poured" about 300,000 shekels on a sponsored promotion.

His personal page Ron Huldai spent NIS 237,186.

This, in addition to his party's column (which has since been deleted), "The Israelis", which spent an additional NIS 59,211.

Total: NIS 296,397.

Next on the list are the chairman of Religious Zionism, Bezalel Smutrich (NIS 221,572), Moshe "Boogie" Ya'alon (NIS 164,714), the Arab party "Ma'an" (NIS 141,073), and the joint list (NIS 104,729).

Meanwhile, the list also stars several social and political pages marked as such by Facebook, such as "Corona default - your testimonies" (NIS 155,530).

This is a page owned by the "Israeli Alliance" - an organization originally composed of V15 graduates.

Facebook states that they make this information accessible to all surfers.

You can find the data yourself via the link:

facebook.com/ads/library