Mixed Signals in the Middle East

Bots? Honey potting? Psychological warfare? The theories on social media are endless as users in Beirut and Cairo questioned the sudden flood of Israeli profiles on dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble. Israelis have reported a similar experience, as they swipe past “nearby” Lebanese citizens who actually live hundreds of miles away.

While the shared Lebanese-Israeli border has meant that citizens occasionally have stumbled across each other on dating apps in the past, now it is happening much more often. In fact, Beirut-based users found that Israelis made up 62 percent of their profiles on Tinder in February.  

This phenomenon is caused by Israel’s GPS “spoofing,” the tactic of sending false location signals to satellite navigation systems to interfere with Hezbollah and Hamas missile and drone capabilities. While Israeli GPS interference is not new, its scale and intensity since October 7 is unprecedented. The spoofing is affecting a region running all the way from Egypt up to Turkey, with citizens’ phones unexpectedly putting them hundreds of miles away from their actual locations.

And the problems affect much more than dating apps. Ship captains are being sent in the wrong direction on the high seas, tourists throughout the region are completely baffled, and Uber and taxi drivers are losing customers.

Lebanon filed a complaint with the United Nations over Israel’s jamming, arguing that it is harming civilian aviation. The number of regional flights receiving information falsely showing their location to be in Beirut or Cairo increased by over 400 percent in the second quarter of 2024, reaching a record high of approximately 1,100 spoofing events on April 14, the day after the Iranian missile strike on Israel. Airline pilots have been forced to abandon GPS receivers and rely on 1950s technology for navigation.

GPS spoofing has become common in conflict zones, as part of a defense against the growing use of precision-guided weapons. So far, the spoofing seems to be fostering much more frustration than affection between communities across the battle lines.