Visitors to the prime minister’s Facebook page, who clicked on a link about the coronavirus, received an automated message pretending to come from Netanyahu.
“If you have friends or family members 60 and older who have not yet been vaccinated, you can write an answer here with their name and phone number, and I can call to convince them!” read the message.
Facebook, via a spokesperson, took action and removed the items, saying that “under our privacy policy, content that people share or request medical information is not allowed.”
The spokesman added that Facebook “temporarily removed the offending message and temporarily suspended the Messenger bot, which shared this content, for violating these rules.”
Netanyahu’s Likud party issued a statement in response saying the aim was “to encourage Israelis over 60 to be vaccinated to save their lives, after Prime Minister Netanyahu brought vaccinations to every Israeli citizen.”
The party said they were appealing to everyone to be vaccinated so we could open up the economy and be the first in the world to come out of the coronavirus. ‘
Netanyahu, which faces a fourth election in two years in March, has made Israel’s leading vaccination program the central message of its re-election campaign.