Israeli firm meddled in more than 30 polls worldwide
An Israeli firm sought to influence more than 30 elections around the world for clients by hacking, sabotage and spreading disinformation, according to an undercover media investigation published yesterday.
It adds to a growing body of evidence that shadowy private firms across the world are profiting from invasive hacking tools and the power of social media platforms to manipulate public opinion.
The firm was dubbed "Team Jorge" by investigating journalists who posed as potential clients in order to gather information on its methods and capabilities.
Its boss, Tal Hanan, is a former Israeli special forces operative who boasted of being able to control supposedly secure Telegram accounts and thousands of fake social media profiles, as well as planting news stories, the reports say.
The investigation was carried out by a consortium of journalists from 30 outlets, including the Guardian in Britain, Le Monde in France, Der Spiegel in Germany and El Pais in Spain, under the direction of the France-based non-profit Forbidden Stories. "The methods and techniques described by Team Jorge raise new challenges for big tech platforms," the Guardian wrote.
"Evidence of a global private market in disinformation aimed at elections will also ring alarm bells for democracies around the world."
Hanan did not respond to detailed questions, saying only: "I deny any wrongdoing."
The 50-year-old told three undercover reporters that his services, often called "black ops", were available to intelligence agencies and political campaigns.
"We are now involved in one election in Africa... We have a team in Greece and a team in [the] Emirates... [We have completed] 33 presidential-level campaigns, 27 of which were successful," the Guardian quoted him as saying.
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