The Megaphone desktop tool was a

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

"action alert" tool developed by Give Israel Your United Support (GIYUS) and distributed by

World Union of Jewish Students The World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS ) ( Hebrew: ההתאחדות העולמית של הסטודנטים היהודים; French: L’Union Mondiale des Etudiants Juifs; Spanish: Unión Mundial de Estudiantes Judíos; Russian: Всемирны ...

World Jewish Congress The World Jewish Congress (WJC) was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations. According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress' main purpose is to act a ...

The Jewish Agency for Israel The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. ...

World Zionist Organization The World Zionist Organization ( he, הַהִסְתַּדְּרוּת הַצִּיּוֹנִית הָעוֹלָמִית; ''HaHistadrut HaTzionit Ha'Olamit''), or WZO, is a non-governmental organization that promotes Zionism. It was founded as the ...

, StandWithUs,

Hasbara fellowships Hasbara Fellowships is an organization that brings students to Israel and trains them to be effective pro-Israel activists on college campuses. Based in New York, it was started in 2001 by Aish HaTorah in conjunction with the Israel Ministry of ...

, HonestReporting, and other pro-Israel

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

organizations. The tool was released in July during the 2006 Lebanon War. By June 2011, the tool was no longer available through the GIYUS website. An RSS newsfeed is available.Give Israel Your United Support - Official Website Homepage
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The New 24HR Megaphone Download Page
by HonestReportingDownload an AZM Megaphone to Receive Instant GIYUS and AZM Alerts!
by AZM

Software

The Megaphone Desktop Tool acted as a wrapper around an

RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...

feed from the GIYUS website. Originally, it gave the user the option of going to a particular site with a poll, and if the user chooses to go to the site, the software then casts a vote automatically, when this is technically feasible, but that feature had been discontinued.

Giyus tries to save you the time and effort of locating the voting form inside the website, a seemingly simple task that may prove quite confusing at certain sites. Whenever we technically can we direct you straight to the voting action. If you have arrived at the poll results, it means that you were directed straight to the voting action and have already successfully voted. If for some reason you don't care to vote, you can always use the "No Thanks" link in the article alert popup.

In later versions, the voting concept was removed entirely and the tool directed users to anti-Israel websites, giving users and option click a button labeled "act now!" which would direct the user to a poll or email address. The software license provides for remote updates: "You understand and agree that Giyus.Org may provide updates, patches and/or new versions of the Software from time to time, including automatic updates that will be installed on your computer, with notice to You, as needed to continue to use the Services, and You hereby authorize such installations."

Press coverage

According to ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper ...

'', Amir Gissin, head of the Public Affairs Department of the Foreign Ministry of Israel, has expressed support for the tool's use. "The Foreign Ministry itself is now pushing the idea, urging supporters of Israel everywhere to become cyberspace soldiers in the new battleground for Israel's image." it reports. Computing website ''

The Register ''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information tech ...

'' has described use of the software as "highly organised mass manipulation of technologies which are supposed to be democratising" and claimed Megaphone is "effectively a high-tech exercise in ballot-stuffing" ''The Register'' also reported that the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

History magazine website "noticed an upsurge in voting on whether holocaust denial should be a criminal offence in Britain. But the closing date had already passed and the result had already been published, so the votes were invalid anyway."

Stewart Purvis Stewart Peter Purvis CBE is a British broadcaster, broadcasting executive, author and academic. Purvis is married with three children. Education Purvis was educated at Southville School, a state primary in Feltham, West London then Dulwich Colleg ...

, former editor-in-chief of

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...

, has noted that an independent panel reviewing the BBC's Israeli-Palestinian coverage received a large number of letters from North America which accused the BBC of being anti-Israeli. He states there was evidence of "pressure group involvement".

Commercialization

Following the success of the Megaphone tool, the developers formed the company

Collactive Collactive Inc. was an Israel-based privately held start-up company which marketed software designed to influence ratings on sites which allow users to rate articles or other items. Collactive launched publicly in May 2007, with US$2 million in st ...

. In 2007, Collactive released their "Web Assistant", a general-purpose commercial version of the Megaphone tool.

Reception

The tool has received a wide range of reactions, from praise to criticism. Amir Gissin, head of the Public Affairs Department of the

Israeli Foreign Ministry The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( he, מִשְׂרַד הַחוּץ, translit. ''Misrad HaHutz''; ar, وزارة الخارجية الإسرائيلية) is one of the most important ministries in the Israeli government. The ministry's r ...

, praised the tool, noting its efficacy during the Adnan Hajj photographs controversy in obtaining an admission from the

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...

news agency that a photograph by Adnan Hajj had been improperly edited with photo editing software. The tool has similarly been praised by a number of pro-Israel organizations for helping to fight what they perceive to be anti-Israel media bias. At the same time, it has been criticized by

Independent Television News Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...

, and others for stuffing the ballot of online polls, generating excessive comments and 'spam' on internet message boards, and stifling online discussion and what is seen by some as a mass, participatory form of propaganda.

Present

As of June 2011, the Megaphone Desktop Tool was unavailable for download from the creators website. Currently, alerts are displayed only through the GIYUS website RSS feed.

References

External links

Official website and mission statement

Current list of Internet Megaphone alerts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Megaphone Desktop Tool Foreign policy political advocacy groups in the United States Internet-based activism Psychological warfare Windows Internet software Zionism Propaganda techniques Internet manipulation and propaganda