An Israeli journalist has reported receiving death threats and dozens of messages after his coverage of an Iranian missile strike provoked outrage from users of a major “prediction market”.
Emanuel Fabian, the military correspondent for The Times of Israel, said that users of the prediction site Polymarket came after him on social media after his reporting allegedly cost them $900,000.
Polymarket allows users to put money on such markets, effectively betting on how likely a particular event is to occur.
The site, and others like it, have surged in popularity in recent years, though they insist they are not a form of gambling and are more akin to futures trading in the stock market.
However, Fabian claimed in an article on Monday that he came under intense pressure from users involved in betting on the prospect of Iranian strikes against Israel last week.
The issue, it appears, is that Fabian had reported a missile impact in Beit Shemesh on March 10.
Conflicting reports at the time suggested that the damage in the city may have been caused by fragments of an intercepted missile falling from the sky.
This was, for Polymarket users at least, a key distinction as only a successful impact would see the market pay out to those who bet Iran would strike Israel, with an interception not sufficient.
As such, based on Fabian's report, those who bet there would not be any strikes lost out and, according to one of those who contacted him, the result cost them as much as $900,000.
In the next week, Fabian reportedly received dozens of messages and several phone calls, culminating in a call from someone posing as a lawyer and a death threat with references to where he and his family live.
The incident has now been reported to police.
Polymarket told the JC: "Polymarket condemns the harassment and threats directed at Emanuel Fabian, or anyone else for that matter.
"This behaviour violates our terms of service and has no place on our platform or anywhere else.
"Prediction markets depend on the integrity of independent reporting. Attempts to pressure journalists to alter their reporting undermine that integrity and undermine the markets themselves."
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