The New York Times is investigating Israeli freelancer Anat Schwartz after she repeatedly liked multiple X posts that indicated a pro-Israel bias, including one that called for the Gaza Strip to be turned into a “slaughterhouse.”
“We are aware that a freelance journalist in Israel who has worked with The Times has ‘liked’ several social media posts,” Times spokesperson Danielle Rhodes Ha said in a statement. “Those ‘likes’ are unacceptable violations of our company policy. We are currently reviewing the matter.”
Schwartz began reporting for the Times in November, where her stories focused on Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks. Her most prominent piece was a co-bylined article detailing sexual violence allegedly committed by Hamas during the raids. The story had drawn internal criticism from staffers and led the Times to pull an episode of The Daily podcast on the original story, according to The Intercept.
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The statement came after an X user found that Schwartz liked various X posts that had a pro-Israel slant, such as a tweet from Israel’s official X account that claimed Hamas beheaded dozens of babies during its Oct. 7 attack. Israel has provided no evidence for the claim and has said investigating it would be “disrespectful to the dead.”
Her most egregious “like” came from a post by David Verthaim, who wrote shortly after the Oct. 7 attacks that should Hamas not return the hostages to Israel, Israel should turn the Gaza Strip “into a slaughterhouse,” according to an autotranslation of his Hebrew post. Verthaim also advocated for Israel to “violate any norm, on the way to victory.”
The New York Times’ social media policy warns journalists that all posts and likes “must not express partisan opinions, promote political views, endorse candidates, make offensive comments or do anything else that undercuts The Times’s journalistic reputation.” Users on X noticed on Saturday that Schwartz had briefly deactivated her account to remove the “likes.”
Schwartz did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Her LinkedIn page lists her current role as a director and screenwriter at KAN, an Israeli state-owned media outlet.
