By Gabriel Stargardter |
PARIS, June 12 (Reuters) – Israeli firm BlackCore, suspected of interfering in France’s local elections in March, is also suspected of meddling in elections in New York City and Scotland, and operating in Angola and Togo, France’s disinformation detection service, Viginum, said on Thursday.
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Featured Picture: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivers his remarks during an annual Memorial Day commemoration ceremony at the Intrepid museum in New York City, U.S., May 25, 2026. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
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Last month, Reuters reported that French authorities suspected BlackCore was behind an online smear campaign targeting three mayoral candidates from the hard-left, pro-Palestine France Unbowed party (LFI) in the local elections.
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At a press conference on Thursday alongside French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, Viginum chief Marc-Antoine Brillant said technical work had led the service to BlackCore. Viginum subsequently presented a detailed report on BlackCore’s alleged actions around the world.
“This modus operandi was not limited to municipal elections in France,” Brillant 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, he added it was still unclear who had commissioned BlackCore to meddle in France.
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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,” he said.
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.
“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,” Lecornu said.
Israel’s embassy in Paris confirmed that France had reached out, saying it was waiting to receive details from the French probe to conduct its own.
“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.
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NEW YORK AND SCOTTISH ELECTIONS ALSO TARGETED
Brillant did not explicitly mention who was targeted in last year’s New York City election, which was won by Zohran Mamdani. His victory thrilled many younger Jewish progressives but spooked more traditional pro-Israel New Yorkers with his outspoken support for the Palestinian cause.
Mamdani’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did New York City and New York state officials.
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The New York Police Department and the U.S. cyber defense agency CISA did not immediately return emails seeking comment. The FBI declined comment.
In a subsequent report, Viginum said it had detected BlackCore-linked accounts targeting John Swinney, the first minister of Scotland. Swinney has described the situation in Gaza as a “man-made humanitarian catastrophe”, saying a genocide may be unfolding, citing civilian casualties, widespread destruction and statements by Israeli officials.
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“These reports of bad actors attempting to interfere in the Scottish Parliament elections are deeply concerning,” Swinney, of the Scottish National Party (SNP), said in an email.
He called on the British government, “which has responsibility for national security”, to make “dealing with hostile state online interference a far higher priority.”
Ross Colquhoun, the SNP’s head of digital, told Reuters that during the May elections, the party’s “social media platforms were subject to an unprecedented level of negative reactions and comments from accounts which appeared to be AI-generated bots.”
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An email seeking comment from Scottish election officials was not immediately returned.
The governments of Angola and Togo also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Before scrubbing its online presence following enquiries from Reuters, 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.”
It has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
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Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter in Paris. Writing by Dominique Vidalon and Gabriel Stargardter. Additional reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington, John Irish in Paris and Sam Tabahriti in London. Editing by Susan Fenton, Matthew Lewis and Kevin Liffey and Mark Potter
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