Gamblers who placed bets on Polymarket gas allegedly threatened a journalist to change his reports about an Iranian missile strike.
The threats were directed at Emanuel Fabian, a military correspondent who works for The Times of Israel. The journalist said the bettors on Polymarket pressured him to alter a report he made about an Iranian missile impact in central Israel.
The incident began after Fabian reported that an Iranian missile struck an open area near Beit Shemesh on the 10th of March during the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel. According to his report, the projectile landed in a forested area near the city and caused a large explosion but no injuries.
Source: times of isreal
Soon after the article was published, Fabian began receiving emails from people who were asking him to change his reports.
They claimed the object that fell was only debris from an intercepted missile and not a direct strike. Fabian said he refused to change the article because the information came from Israeli military sources and rescue officials.
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Polymarket market controversy
Fabian later discovered that many of the people contacting him were betting on the popular prediction market, Polymarket. The market asked whether Iran would strike Israel on March 10, with more than $14 million reportedly wagered on the outcome.
The rules of the bet stated that a missile that was shot down would not count as a confirmed strike. Because of Fabian’s report that stated that a missile hit Israeli territory, some bettors who wagered “No” lost huge amounts of money.
Source: times of isreal
According to Fabian, several individuals continued to pressure him to rewrite the report so that it would say the missile had been intercepted.
The situation escalated when anonymous messages and calls began arriving through the reporter’s email, social media, and WhatsApp. Some messages reportedly offered money in exchange for changing the article, while others threatened violence if the report was not altered.
One person warned that the journalist had less than an hour to update the story and claimed bettors could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. Fabian said some of the messages also referenced details about his family and home, which he described as deeply alarming.
Police investigation into the case
The journalist eventually reported the threats to Israeli police and provided evidence of the messages. A spokesperson for Polymarket condemned the harassment and said threatening journalists violates the platform’s rules.
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