Visitors to the prime minister’s Facebook page, who clicked on a link about the coronavirus, received an automatic message purporting to come from Netanyahu.
“If you have friends or family 60 or older who haven’t been vaccinated yet, you can write a response here with their name and phone number, and I can call to convince them.” the message is read.
In taking action and removing the articles, Facebook said, through a spokesperson, that “under our privacy policy we do not allow content that shares or solicits people’s medical information.”
The spokesman added that Facebook had “removed the offensive post and temporarily suspended the Messenger bot, which shared this content, for breaching those rules.”
Netanyahu’s Likud party issued a statement in response, saying the goal “was to encourage Israelis over the age of 60 to get vaccinated to save their lives, after Prime Minister Netanyahu brought vaccines to all Israeli citizens.”
The party said they are asking “everyone to get vaccinated so they can open up the economy and be the first in the world to get out of the coronavirus.”
Netanyahu, who faces a fourth election in two years in March, has made Israel’s leading vaccination program the central message of his re-election campaign.