r/therewasanattempt, a subreddit originally meant for funny ‘fail’ content, and which has over 7 million members, features as its main
banner an archery target in the colors of the Palestinian flag with the words “Free Palestine” ringed around it and Israel in the bull’s eye. (The subreddit’s icon is this same target with the Israel bull’s eye.) The main banner
previously featured the phrase “From the River to the sea, Palestine will be Free.” The subreddit’s
sidebar recommends network-controlled r/Palestine, r/PublicFreakout, r/boringdystopia, and several more.
The sheer volume of posts in r/therewasanattempt obscures a steady tempo of anti-Israel content. For example, a recent
post’s caption was “[there was an attempt] to support Palestine” featuring a video of the protestor who rushed the field with a Palestinian flag during the last Super Bowl halftime show captioned, “Fearless Protester Charges Field Waving Palestinian Flag During Super Bowl Half-Time Show.” Two days before, there was a
post featuring the caption, “[there was an attempt] To appear as the world’s most powerfull [sic] country” showing an image of Trump pulling out a chair for Netanyahu. One day prior came a
post with the caption “[there was an attempt] To argue that opposing ethnic cleansing makes you antisemitic.”
The extent to which other network-controlled subreddits are so obviously astroturfed would be hilarious if moderators weren’t using them to distribute propaganda made by terrorists. A mod
announcement titled “We’re a pro-Palestine, leftist subreddit!” is pinned to the top of r/ToiletPaperUSA; every other post on r/PublicFreakout is protest footage; the pinned
post on r/boringdystopia is a list of ways to donate to Palestine (which includes a link to r/Palestine’s fundraising page), and its recommended subreddits
include r/Palestine, r/IsraelCrimes, and other network-controlled subreddits.
One of the biggest non-relevant subreddits controlled by the network — and one that, at 20 million members, is among the most popular subreddits on the site — is r/Documentaries. Co-moderated by Sabbah, Kumquat_conniption, BlueberryBubblyBuzz, Falafel1998, ohhyouknow, PlenitudeOpulence and another member of the network, PalRep, the subreddit is
dominated by the r/Palestine network, its members constituting eight out of the subreddit’s 14 non-bot moderators.
A glance at r/Documentaries content shows what you’d suppose: links to documentaries, mainly on YouTube. Woven into these videos, however, is a steady through-line of anti-Israel or pro-Palestine propaganda on a cycle that separates them by mere days — in some cases, no more than a single day. No other topic or theme on r/Documentaries receives this persistent and intensive focus.
