Israeli firm BlackCore meddled in US and Scottish elections French watchdog says
Israeli cyber firm BlackCore, recently accused of interfering in France’s local elections, is also suspected of meddling in elections in New York City and Scotland, according to the French disinformation watchdog Viginum, the news agency Reuters has reported.
At a press conference on Thursday alongside French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, Viginum chief Marc-Antoine Brillant said technical investigations had led them to suspect BlackCore.
The watchdog said BlackCore was suspected of influence operations around the world.
"This modus operandi was not limited to municipal elections in France," he said. "It also appears to have been used to carry out foreign digital interference operations in other countries or regions, such as Angola, Togo, the elections in Scotland, and the 2025 municipal election in New York."
However, Brillant said it was still unclear who had commissioned the Israeli company to meddle in French politics.
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"Our investigations did not make it possible to identify the sponsor or sponsors, if indeed they exist, behind this foreign digital interference."
Last month, French authorities suspected the Israeli firm of orchestrating an online smear campaign against three mayoral candidates from the leftist pro-Palestine France Unbowed party (LFI) in the local election.
A foreign digital interference campaign, first flagged by Viginum in March, used deceptive websites, social media accounts, and negative digital ads to smear three left-wing mayoral candidates in Marseille, Toulouse, and Roubaix with false criminal allegations, including sexual assault.
A joint investigation by Liberation and Haaretz later uncovered the operation's digital tools on a server linked to BlackCore, and two companies based in Tel Aviv.
The French government had asked Israel for explanations on BlackCore's actions, as well as for help in trying to find out who may have been behind the smear campaign, Lecornu said.
"I do not doubt for a single instant that if a French private group, from French soil moreover, had engaged in foreign digital interference in Israel, they would have done the same to its ambassador on site," he added.
Israel's embassy in Paris confirmed that France had reached out, saying it was waiting to receive details from the French investigation in order to conduct its own.
High-profile targets in NYC and Scotland
Brillant did not explicitly mention who was targeted in last year's New York City election, which was won by Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken supporter of the Palestinian cause.
Mamdani’s team, the New York Police Department, and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment, while the FBI declined to comment.
Viginum subsequently reported that BlackCore-linked accounts also targeted Scotland’s first minister, John Swinney, who has described the situation in Gaza as a "man-made humanitarian catastrophe" and said a genocide may be unfolding.
According to Reuters, before erasing its online presence following enquiries from the press, BlackCore described itself as "an elite influence, cyber, and technology company built for the modern era of information warfare".
It said it provided governments and political campaigns with "cutting-edge strategies, advanced tools, and robust security to shape narratives".
The company has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
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