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Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes
- Zealotux 4mo agoThe israeli ambassador in France should already have been kicked out a while ago for a myriad of reasons, I'm ashamed my country is so spineless.
- youre-wrong3 4mo ago[flagged]
- expedition32 4mo agoA Dutch commentator said something incredibly profound that stuck with me: Israel is a Middle Eastern country instead of an outpost of European civilization.
- fakedang 4mo agoI wonder what makes Europeans think Israel is an outpost of European civilization - just the skin tone? Lol. Israel has always been a country trying to coopt the culture of its Arab neighbors. They've tried to claim shawarmas, falafel and hummus, dishes that are quintessentially Arabic, as their own.
- mschuster91 4mo ago> Israel has always been a country trying to coopt the culture of its Arab neighbors. They've tried to claim shawarmas, falafel and hummus, dishes that are quintessentially Arabic, as their own. That argument is just as much BS as the squabbles in the Balkans over who can claim Nikola Tesla, cevapcici, burek/börek, döner/gyros, pljeskavica and a whole other host of foods. Everyone got their own takes on food and trying to act like shawarma/falafel/hummus are "exclusively" Arabic (or Israeli) is borderline moronic.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4mo agoBaklava is a fairly good example of a “regional, not cultural” food. I have enjoyed Greek, Turkish, Lebanese, Moroccan, Afghan, and Iranian baklava. Each culture puts its own stamp on the food.
- jijijijij 4mo agoAlso dumplings, tortellini, Maultaschen, pierogi, ... Local pride across the globe, kinda boring around the world.
- fakedang 4mo agoThat's precisely my point. I didn't mean those dishes were Arabic by origin, but by prevalence. In fact, evidence points out to shawarma being an adaptation of the Turkish doner that was developed variously across the different provinces of the Ottoman Empire. But the fact of the matter is that these dishes ended up being the mainstay of Arabic cuisine long after the Ottoman Empire's end. Then a bunch of white Ashkenazi/Sephardic/Mizrahi bois ship on over from Europe and Yemen and Morocco and try to claim themselves as the originators when they clearly aren't.
- yoavm 4mo agoSkin tone? The aspiration to assign Western concepts of racism to Israeli society is so uninformed, if I am to be assuming good intentions, or very manipulative. More than half of Israeli Jews immigrated from Arab countries, and look Arab by all means. Including myself. It's literally impossible to tell if someone is an Israeli or a Palestinian based on their skin tone.
- chadgpt3 4mo agoIsrael is literally a European colony. Europe sent a bunch of people from Europe to an already populated land to settle there and displace the natives. What definition of "outpost" wouldn't include that?
- JumpCrisscross 4mo ago> Europe sent a bunch of people from Europe to an already populated land to settle there and displace the natives Are we talking about recent Jewish migrants? Or migration under the British, the Ottomans, the Mongols, the Romans, the Macedonians, the Babylonians or the Sea Peoples? This American tendency to project black-white and colonist-colonised diametrics onto the world is insanely reductive. There are settler-colonial elements to Israel's creation. That one thread of commonality doesn't make it comparable to the New World.
- chadgpt3 4mo agoWe are talking about the country of Israel.
- hibberl7 4mo ago[flagged]
- weregiraffe 4mo agoInteresting idea, considering that the European civilization tried to exterminate the Jews in Europe not so long ago.
- chadgpt3 4mo agoAnd when other Europeans stopped those Europeans from murdering all the Jews, they decided to expel them to the middle east instead, creating the situation we have today.
- weregiraffe 4mo agoAre USA and USSR part of "European civilization"? In 1945 I'm not sure they'd agree.
- stuaxo 4mo agoWhich countries ?
- defrost 4mo agoAs of September 2025, the State of Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 157 of the 193 member states of the United Nations (UN), or just over 81% of all UN members. ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_Palestine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_P... Hamas, not so much.
- weregiraffe 4mo ago[flagged]
- Keyframe 4mo agoYou do realize French did administer Lebanon? All of those things led to that hot mess of a region.
- bdidiend 4mo ago[flagged]
- karmakurtisaani 4mo agoEuropeans couldn't even get Israel out of a silly pop song contest, so it seems a bit hopeless to expect any actual political action.
- bflesch 4mo ago[flagged]
- coldtea 4mo ago>Excluding Israeli citizens from it hurts their moderates more than it hurts the hardliners. Nah, it hurts their public image and thus hardliners. Like similar actions against South Africa did.
- ifwinterco 4mo agoWhatever their rhetoric they desperately crave respectability, making Israel a pariah state à la 1980s South Africa would hurt them badly. Why else are they even trying to be in Eurovision and UEFA in the first place
- gordonhart 4mo agoThey’re in UEFA because half of the countries in Asia (AFC) and Africa (CAF) wouldn’t play them. Same reason Russia considered leaving UEFA recently.
- coldtea 4mo ago>They’re in UEFA because half of the countries in Asia (AFC) and Africa (CAF) wouldn’t play them. And how's that a problem of UEFA?
- chadgpt3 4mo agoIsrael literally owns that contest. By what reasoning could the EU force the owner of a silly song contest to exclude their own country?
- vkou 4mo agoRogue states will attack Western democracy. It's a tale as old as... Well, actually, in the past few years, this one has done more on that front than all the others combined.
- throwawaypath 4mo ago[flagged]
- naturalmovement 4mo ago[flagged]
- roenxi 4mo agoYeah it's an interesting article because on the one hand, PR firm doing PR and that doesn't seem very newsworthy. On the other hand, there is an extremely good case that the firms doing PR in French elections should be French PR firms and responsive to French law enforcement. Ditto Scotland and New York. I can't find an angle where it looks like a good idea to tolerate well organised and financed foreign guns for hire getting involved in a local election. Although I do think throwing "pro-Palestine" in is a cheap insinuation. Pretty much everyone is against genocide. It doesn't tell us much about why they might be targeted for a smear campaign.
- mschuster91 4mo ago> Although I do think throwing "pro-Palestine" in is a cheap insinuation. Pretty much everyone is against genocide. It doesn't tell us much about why they might be targeted for a smear campaign. The question if there is a genocide isn't settled, either. There are credible arguments for both viewpoints when it comes to the current iteration of the Palestine conflict.
- orwin 4mo agoForced displacement and systematic art/books destruction, I don't need more arguments tbh.
- mschuster91 4mo ago> Forced displacement Well, what would you do if, say, drug cartels hid out in civilian residential areas on the southern border in Mexico and would keep lobbing bombs over the border wall? If I were to guess, you'd have the US Army go in and clean up for good. Because that's exactly what Israel is doing. They don't want to be exposed to constant bombardment out of Gaza and Lebanon any more, they have had that ever since IDF left Gaza in 2006. However, I agree with you, what is going on in West Bank is inexcusable. Fatah is just as corrupt as Hamas, but they have not shown any sign of aggression from their end towards Israel.
- shevy-java 4mo agoIs the USA finally doing something about foreign lobbyists here? Trump is like the ultimate tool here for foreigners to gain influence, no matter the country. Yuri explained this already in the 1980s (!!!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9apDnRRSOCk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9apDnRRSOCk (it's the KGB view, so biased too, of course, but if you extend it, then also connect it to Epstein, you have basically undermined democracy effectively; a shame Yuri is dead, he would have had a field day with "analysing" Putin).
- badgersnake 4mo agoNope, the war in Iran is testament to that.
- RobotToaster 4mo agoNope, foreign lobbyists in the guise of AIPAC spent record amounts to primary Thomas Massie.
- _DeadFred_ 4mo agoOP is talking about American's here. AIPAC is made of and paid for AIPAC, like other political packs or other American groups. AIPAC is just Americans, doing the American political thing.
- noworriesnate 4mo agoAIPAC is mostly funded by Zionist Jewish billionaires[1]. Characterizing this as "Americans, doing the American political thing" conflates normal Americans with Zionist Jewish billionaires. They are not the same thing. [1] https://www.trackaipac.com/donors https://www.trackaipac.com/donors
- stuaxo 4mo ago"Lecornu said the French government had asked Israel for explanations of BlackCore's actions, and also for help in trying to find out who may have been behind the smear campaign." This is a very well executed bit of diplomacy.
- Simon_O_Rourke 4mo agoNonsense, it'll end up with merely some public head scratching and shrugs, and a "gee whiz monsieur, it sure is a mystery to us too". Interesting that whatever they wanted to do backfired in NYC.
- pera 4mo agoHere in Scotland it seems the desinfo campaign targeted mostly the SNP and Swinney. I guess it's hard to know how effective it was but his party lost 6 seats in last month's elections. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/26188090.john-swinney-target-israeli-firm-blackcore-disinformation-campaign/ https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/26188090.john-swinney-ta...
- thefz 4mo agoAt least the French demonstrated they hold other governments accountable. Israel is shrugging off the killing of some 70k civilians, for sure they will shrug off this one too, to no one's surprise (including the French government).
- brenschluss 4mo agoWell of course, that’s the point - it gives the French government the cover to investigate while sending Israel a soft warning. “Israel, thank you for your cooperation, my gosh, we’re really going to get to the bottom of this” = ‘We know what you’re doing, fuck off’
- xbmcuser 4mo ago[dead]
- draw_down 4mo ago[dead]
- ebbi 4mo agoThe same Israeli BlackCore that masqueraded as a humanitarian fund for Gaza and stole the money? https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2026-06-11/ty-article-magazine/.premium/the-fake-gaza-charity-linked-to-the-anti-left-disinformation-campaign-in-france/0000019e-b6a8-d7bd-a3bf-beec56f10000 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2026-0... Lowest of the low.
- ebbi 4mo agoQuite revealing when this comment has been getting downvoted. I guess some people support the fact that some people dishonestly raise money for a humanitarian cause and then steal that money.
- hibberl7 4mo ago[flagged]
- nibman 4mo ago[dead]
- miroljub 4mo agoBlackCore? Yeah, those are these Russians meddling in elective all over the Europe and the USA.
- inglor 4mo ago[flagged]
- breppp 4mo agoI am an Israeli and though I dislike this certain brand of companies and would never work in one, I am not sure this is strictly bad. I assume these were hired by a local candidate (unless someone can think who has a deep interest in French municipal elections) Currently the only actors who use fake social accounts for election manipulation are the Russians, Chinese, Iran and Qatar. The west is completely powerless in either fighting back, regulating social networks or coming up with a technological solution. As democracies are being undermined by foreign influence, from Brexit, to the US elections, I'd rather local parties would have access to these tools than the alternative, and that would be only done using private companies. Of course the better alternative is getting rid of fake accounts and making social media into a unicorn and bunnies hate-free zone, don't think we are headed there though
- Hikikomori 4mo agoIsrael just buys the political support in the open instead.
- breppp 4mo agoI believe you are referring to Jewish citizens of the USA that are free to support whatever political candidate they see fit?
- shagmin 4mo agoI take it as referring to AIPAC, one of the most influential lobbying organizations in the US.
- mbxy 4mo agoIt tends to consistently "fit" Moo-Sad's playbook. Like, ALWAYS! How can you then turn around and try to mask it as "citizens supporting their political goals"? Clear communication points released from headquarters to all the media minions, social media platforms, election influencing channels, and on and on.
- Matl 4mo agoLast time I suggested on a similar story that there's a disproportionate number of firms in Israel with an explicit focus on subversion, manipulation, spying and malware, seemingly because a large portion of the Israeli population gain a certain expertise in these fields as part of serving in the IDF and working to suppress Palestinians, I got accused of bias because apparently there's many more Israeli startups working on medical research, green technology and world peace. If there are, they certainly would do no harm in being more vocal, firms like BlackCore is unfortunately what Israel is becoming known for around the world.
- r_lee 4mo agothere's not much controversy that would pull media attention in green tech or medical research
- bigyabai 4mo agoMedical research is still plenty controversial: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Aftonbladet_Israel_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Aftonbladet_Israel_contro...
- inglor 4mo agoIsraeli here - I'll try to write this the least political as I can since I on one hand disagree strongly with the government and on the other my experience has been getting antisemstic (yes, not anti-zionist) comments whenever this gets discussed a lot (and likely downvotes but who cares I've been here 10 years and have more fake points than is important anyway). Israel has several "cores" of technology. The military stuff is shameful (as well as other stuff). It's not just the NSOs (or less infamously the Wiz's/Palo Altos etc). There are plenty of good things though - startups in the biotech/health/classic "tech" space. I'll spare you the long list of stuff like Mellanox that drives Nvidias in data centers and leave the googling of medtech to you. Lots of neutral stuff too.
- Matl 4mo ago> my experience has been getting antisemstic (yes, not anti-zionist) comments whenever this gets discussed a lot I appreciate your experience. I have no doubt there's indeed been an increase in such comments. I think it's important to note that the Israeli government does work very hard to conflate Zionism with Judaism, (which itself seems antisemitic to me), making it harder for some to separate the two. > There are plenty of good things though - startups in the biotech/health/classic "tech" space. That's good to know, as I said in another comment, it may be time for those startups to make themselves heard more, not because they have to, but because it is in their interest if they have any expansion plans going forward, given what a poor PR the Israeli state and firms like NSO, BlackCore etc. give the Israeli tech scene.
- zby 4mo agoI would love to hear from someone knowledgeable - is that bad for the company or good?
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- trolleski 4mo agoA shocker!
- WhatsName 4mo agoI predict that this will be flagged very soon. I would love for HN to publish some data on likes/flags, even anonymous IDs with some infos like account age and number of posts. Sure someome will argue things here get flagged cause they are political, but I don't buy that.
- inglor 4mo agoWe've had discussions about this sort of stuff before. As an Israeli (note the article exposing them is Israeli too) I was not aware until I saw this and I definitely intend to protest/organize about this (though to be fair I've been protesting about other stuff in the past and the climate here sucks).
- free652 4mo ago>Sure someome will argue things here get flagged cause they are political, but I don't buy that. Are you saying that this isn't political? It's literally about politics. The comments section will be predictable and it will be flagged for that. Do you disagree?
- WhatsName 4mo agoI do not disagree that there is a political aspect to this article. Todays news on Fable and Mythos are political too. HN has plenty of political articles, yet some are more flagged than others. I claim there might be a pattern of supression. Are arguing against my main point that it would be good to have more transparency so I can support or refute my claim?
- bluealienpie 4mo agoThe purpose is support enterprises which have investment in genocide, the free speech nature of this website was always questionable at best.
- free652 4mo ago>I claim there might be a pattern of supression. Do you want to count how many times words like nazi, genocide, terrorists appears in comments section about Anthropic vs here? Do you see the difference? But I am going to point to https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Blackcore isn't a startup. It was already covered everywhere in the news. So there is no need to post yet again.
- abc123abc123 4mo ago[flagged]
- mentalgear 4mo agoAnother entry in the 'Black' villain line, along with BlackStone, BlackRock, BlackWater etc ... really makes you think the world is run by a thinly veiled cult of evil comic style villains.
- bflesch 4mo agoBlack, like Leon Black of Epstein fame
- FeteCommuniste 4mo agoAlso Black Cube: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cube
- myth_drannon 4mo ago[flagged]
- sourcegrift 4mo ago[flagged]
- cjbgkagh 4mo agoLife is a struggle, death is peaceful.
- dang 4mo agoReligious flamewar comments are not allowed here, so please don't post any more of these. Beyond that: could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been breaking the site guidelines repeatedly. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
- sourcegrift 4mo ago[flagged]
- jongjong 4mo agoIt's disturbing to think that there are people getting paid huge amounts of money by governments, using taxpayer money to f around with politics of other countries... Meanwhile I've been trying to raise a $100K seed round for my startup which I've been working on for 14 years during nights and weekends... and I never even made it the interview phase of a tech incubator. WTF is wrong with people?
- yowo 4mo agoWhat a surprise..
- dmix 4mo agoArticle is very light on details
- eunos 4mo agoI'm surprised that they dare to target NYC. I think NSO Group restricted Pegasus so that no US adversary would be retained as a client and the US would not be targeted.
- smashah 4mo ago[flagged]
- afavour 4mo agoThe current US administration would have likely been in favor of it. Long term it’s a bad idea but it wouldn’t be the first time we saw groups like this only thinking about the short term.
- daishi55 4mo agoThey think they can do whatever they want. And thus far, they have been right about that.
- JumpCrisscross 4mo ago> thus far, they have been right about that NSO has been sued [1][2] and sanctioned [3]. [1] https://about.fb.com/news/2025/05/winning-the-fight-against-spyware-merchant-nso/ https://about.fb.com/news/2025/05/winning-the-fight-against-... [2] https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/us-court-orders-spyware-company-nso-stop-targeting-whatsapp-reduces-damages-2025-10-18/ https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/us-cou... [3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/11/03/pegasus-nso-entity-list-spyware/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/11/03/pegasus...
- thinkcontext 4mo agoI confused BlackCore with Black Cube, a different Israeli private oppo research and dirty tricks group of former intelligence agents. They gained attention for their dirty campaigns against Harvey Weinstein's accusers, NSOs critics and Hungarian opposition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cube
- armchairhacker 4mo agoNot to be confused with Blackrock or Blackstone, both large American investment companies with their own shady operations.
- bakugo 4mo ago[flagged]
- oliwarner 4mo agoOh, get in the bin. Conflating Israeli-sanctioned malevolence with "Jewish people" is incredibly unhelpful to the discussion.
- Der_Einzige 4mo agoIf “anti Zionism” is actually just “anti semitism” than “Israeli-sanctioned malevolence” can be conflated with the Jewish people.
- JumpCrisscross 4mo ago> If “anti Zionism” is actually just “anti semitism” than “Israeli-sanctioned malevolence” can be conflated with the Jewish people No, obviously not. If 2 + 2 = 5, then 9 + 9 = 3 billion. No, and no.
- Dig1t 4mo agoBlackrock and Blackstone DO indeed sponsor pro-Israel groups though. >https://www.reddit.com/r/BDS/comments/1rzo8xs/sponsors_of_recent_adl_convention/?rdt=35754 https://www.reddit.com/r/BDS/comments/1rzo8xs/sponsors_of_re...
- Carbon1603 4mo agoIs this the same company that Slovenia was asking the EU for help with regarding the company's meddling in the election process?
- verteu 4mo agoNot quite. That was Black Cube, a second Israeli spy firm accused of election meddling: https://www.politico.eu/article/robert-golob-slovenia-eu-probe-israeli-black-cube-election-campaign/ https://www.politico.eu/article/robert-golob-slovenia-eu-pro...
- sourcegrift 4mo agoLol. Just use reddit. No need for creating new platforms
- sghiassy 4mo ago… and if you’re against Israeli firms against meddling in our elections, you’re somehow accused of antisemitism
- kava962 4mo agoI always thought this was a new thing until I read The Palestine Laboratory by Antony Loewenstein. Over more than 50 years Israel has developed a global export industry around military, surveillance, and security technologies that were developed and tested through its control of Palestinian territories, and that these technologies are then marketed and sold worldwide. Buyers are often bad actors that use it to kill and suppress other populations including in Armenia/Azerbaijan, Myanmar, Rwanda genocide, authoritarian governments and many other examples cited in the book.
- soerxpso 4mo agoIs the "meddling" just running campaign ads? I don't really see how an election where voters' brains were hijacked by tiktok ads funded by foreign governments is less legitimate than one where voters' brains were hijacked by tiktok ads funded by local organizations.
- muwtyhg 4mo agoYou don't see a difference between local and foreign organizations influencing an election? Most countries only allow citizens to vote. By your logic, they should let anyone vote, because what's the difference between a citizen and a foreigner when it comes to elections?
- booleandilemma 4mo ago[dead]
- nicechianti 4mo ago[dead]
- hereme888 4mo ago[flagged]
- aaa_aaa 4mo agoTrust me it is hard for your uncle to be "not" anti Israel nowadays.
- keepthegoop606 4mo ago[flagged]
- afavour 4mo agoAs a New Yorker this doesn’t shock me too much. The level of “Mamdani is an anti-Semite” sentiment I saw online (Reddit particularly) felt truly hysterical. And wasn’t matched by any equivalent in the offline world.
- aofjrn48 4mo ago[flagged]
- unselect5917 4mo agoShow me a single article about "antisemitism on the decline".
- aofjrn48 4mo ago[flagged]
- phatfish 4mo agoIs anti-semitism on the rise, or is the bar on the ground?
- aofjrn48 4mo ago[flagged]
- crowbahr 4mo agoNew account made just for this comment is always suspicious. Look - the correct amount of hate crime is always 0 but using a percentage masks the amount of crime that comes from noise. Hate crime is not evenly distributed - no crime is - and a rise from 10 to 20 per month in a city of 8.5 million is not the cataclysm you're acting like it is. Again: no hate crime is good and this increase is an unalloyed ill. It's something that deserves attention and NYPD resources, as well as public campaigns. The last thing I want is anyone to be attacked for their religious beliefs. But the fact that this talking point is heavily botted is indicative of broader initiatives to make sure it stays a talking point disproportionately to its impact.
- unselect5917 4mo agoIf our press was honest, every story you heard about Russia would have been about Israel instead. Israel is overwhelmingly America's worst enemy and they distract from that by pretending Russia/Iran/China/Qatar is. No other country blackmails our politicians or steals so much of our money, military resources, soldier lives as much as Israel. There's no close competitor even. Yet we're never told that explicitly and it's never framed as the abusive relationship that it is. Makes you really wonder who the press works for.
- warumdarum 4mo ago[flagged]
- unselect5917 4mo ago'islamo supremacists', but not jewish supremacists? The ones just spontaneously moved into a land where people already lived 75 years ago aren't responsible? Literally DARVO. is a reaction that perpetrators of wrongdoing, such as abusers, narcissists, or sexual offenders, may display in response to being held accountable for their behavior. Research indicates that it is a common manipulation strategy of psychological abusers.
- strictnein 4mo ago[flagged]
- warumdarum 4mo agoSlowly? The islamo supremacists pushed them out of the whole middle east. Look at minorities map of that region over time. Thats the true horror show. The alewites murdered as revenge for assad, the druse attacked that dont make it into the newspapers, the yesidi assaulted by ISIS and driven into the aame wind the want to drive the yehudis into.
- strictnein 4mo ago
- agrijakhetarpal 4mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- juliusceasar 4mo agoIt is called HASBARA, spreading lies with Israeli government money received from USA as aid.
- rendall 4mo ago* CLS Strategies, a Washington, D.C. communications firm, was named by Facebook/Meta in 2020 when Meta removed fake accounts and pages tied to operations in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Mexico. Meta defines coordinated inauthentic behavior as efforts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal where fake accounts are central. PRWeek also reported the takedown as fake accounts and pages managed by CLS. [1] [2] * Rally Forge, a U.S. marketing firm, was linked by Facebook to a 2020 domestic U.S. operation run on behalf of Turning Point USA, involving fake accounts and coordinated behavior. Axios reported that Facebook removed 200 accounts, 55 pages, and 76 Instagram accounts. [3] [4] * New Knowledge / Project Birmingham is another ugly example. In the 2017 Alabama Senate race, Democratic-aligned operatives experimented with Russian-style disinformation tactics, including fake or misleading Facebook activity and buying retweets. The effort was reportedly small and probably did not decide the election, but it proves the category exists inside the U.S. political ecosystem. [5] [6] * There are also U.S.-linked pro-Western covert influence operations. Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory analyzed accounts removed by Twitter and Meta for platform manipulation or coordinated inauthentic behavior; later reporting said the Pentagon ordered a review after fake accounts suspected of being run by the U.S. military were taken down. Meta later attributed a campaign targeting the Middle East and Central Asia to people associated with the U.S. military. [7] [8] [9] * Cambridge Analytica is adjacent but not identical. It had U.S. offices and U.S. political clients, and it was part of the broader “election manipulation for hire” world, but its central scandal was data harvesting, psychographic targeting, and political ad targeting, not necessarily fake-account bot networks in the same narrow sense. [10] [1] August 2020 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report https://about.fb.com/news/2020/09/august-2020-cib-report/ https://about.fb.com/news/2020/09/august-2020-cib-report/ [2] Facebook deletes dozens of fake accounts, pages run by CLS Strategies https://www.prweek.com/article/1693342/facebook-deletes-dozens-fake-accounts-pages-run-cls-strategies https://www.prweek.com/article/1693342/facebook-deletes-doze... [3] October 2020 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report https://about.fb.com/news/2020/11/october-2020-cib-report/ https://about.fb.com/news/2020/11/october-2020-cib-report/ [4] Facebook removes inauthentic campaign linked to Turning Point USA https://www.axios.com/2020/10/08/facebook-turning-point-usa-campaign https://www.axios.com/2020/10/08/facebook-turning-point-usa-... [5] Researcher whose firm wrote report on Russian interference used questionable online tactics during Alabama Senate race https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/19/researcher-affiliated-with-russian-interference-senate-report-used-questionable-online-tactics-during-alabama-senate-race/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/19/researc... [6] Project Birmingham (disinformation campaign) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Birmingham_%28disinformation_campaign%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Birmingham_%28disinfor... [7] Unheard Voice: Evaluating five years of pro-Western covert influence operations https://public-assets.graphika.com/reports/graphika_stanford_internet_observatory_report_unheard_voice.pdf https://public-assets.graphika.com/reports/graphika_stanford... [8] Meta, Twitter take down accounts pushing pro-U.S. messages https://www.axios.com/2022/08/24/meta-twitter-take-down-accounts-pro-us-messages https://www.axios.com/2022/08/24/meta-twitter-take-down-acco... [9] Fewer Bots, More Ads: The Pentagon's Evolving Online Influence Campaigns https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/fewer-bots--more-ads--the-pentagon-s-evolving-online-influence-campaigns https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/fewer-bots--more-ads--t... [10] Cambridge Analytica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica
- the_origami_fox 4mo agoWow, again I am dismayed by the antizionism and anti-Israel sentiment. The popularity of this short, weak article on this website, and the vitriol and hate in the comments is unreal. Can't you all go to Reddit? In 2016 the UK based Cambridge Analytica was blamed for Trump's win in 2016. Then he won again in 2024 without them. Meanwhile both USA parties invested heavily in social media campaigns. In my country local government elections are in a few months and political parties are already flooding my social media with rage bait (primarily Instagram and Facebook). This short article is about a private company, not linked to the government, that may or may not have been retained by locals, that may or may not have breached foreign interference laws, and that certainly did not lend its targeted candidates an overwhelming advantage (Mamdani was the most popular candidate in the NYC mayoral election). But because it is about Israel everyone goes crazy.
- stats111 4mo agoIsrael has been getting away with this for years: https://www.france24.com/en/technology/20230215-israeli-firm-boasted-of-meddling-in-more-than-30-elections-worldwide https://www.france24.com/en/technology/20230215-israeli-firm...
- mortsnort 4mo agoIs this protected free speech in USA?
- sterlind 4mo agowhy would the First Amendment apply to foreign nationals working for a foreign corporation in a foreign country?
- rendall 4mo ago* Avisa Partners / iStrat, a French lobbying, intelligence, cybersecurity, and online-influence firm, has been accused in French investigations of information manipulation through ghostwritten articles, fake or undisclosed profiles, blogs, and Wikipedia interventions on behalf of powerful clients. Mediapart reported that Avisa was suspected of modifying Wikipedia pages for clients including French business elites and foreign powers. Wikimedia France also summarized the affair, saying Avisa or its subcontractors were suspected of numerous undeclared paid contributions to Wikipedia. Avisa has denied wrongdoing. [1] [2] [3] * iStrat, Avisa's predecessor, was separately linked in French reporting to fake online personas used to publish commentary about business disputes. The Avisa Partners Wikipedia summary, based on French media reports, says JDN traced fake analyst profiles and critical commentary to iStrat-era activity, while iStrat and its owners denied the claims. [4] * There was also a France-linked, though not company-linked, covert influence operation in Africa. In December 2020, Facebook/Meta removed networks for coordinated inauthentic behavior targeting African audiences; one network was linked to individuals associated with the French military. Meta said the operation used fake accounts, pages posing as news or military entities, and off-platform domains. Graphika and Stanford described it as French and Russian influence operations going head-to-head in Africa. [5] [6] * The Washington Post reported the same Facebook takedown as people affiliated with the French military using fake Facebook accounts to meddle in African politics, while noting that Facebook said it did not have evidence that the French military institution itself directed the activity. [7] [1] Operation Fake Info: firm used by French business elites suspected of infiltrating Wikipedia https://www.mediapart.fr/en/journal/france/230722/operation-fake-info-firm-used-french-business-elites-suspected-infiltrating-wikipedia https://www.mediapart.fr/en/journal/france/230722/operation-... [2] L'affaire Avisa Partners sur Wikipédia, expliquée https://www.wikimedia.fr/affaire-avisa-partners-sur-wikipedia-expliquee/ https://www.wikimedia.fr/affaire-avisa-partners-sur-wikipedi... [3] France: Avisa Partners withdraws its defamation actions against a number of media outlets https://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2023/06/29/france-avisa-partners-withdraws-its-defamation-actions-against-a-number-of-media-outlets/ https://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2023/06/29/france-avisa... [4] Avisa Partners https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avisa_Partners https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avisa_Partners [5] Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior from France and Russia https://about.fb.com/news/2020/12/removing-coordinated-inauthentic-behavior-france-russia/ https://about.fb.com/news/2020/12/removing-coordinated-inaut... [6] More-Troll Kombat: French and Russian influence operations go head to head targeting audiences in Africa https://graphika.com/reports/more-troll-kombat https://graphika.com/reports/more-troll-kombat [7] People affiliated with French military used Facebook to meddle in Africa https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/15/people-affiliated-with-french-military-used-facebook-meddle-africa/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/15/people-...
- nxm 4mo ago[flagged]
- karim79 4mo ago"Israel has of course no intention to interfere in the French political process, be it at the national or municipal level," it said in a statement." Yeah right. Surely not. Why would they even?