by Shir Hever
An international network of investigative journalists, Forbidden Stories, is conducting a global survey of “ disinformation mercenaries “. Israel, the leading exporter of services in smear campaigns, fake news and election rigging, reaps juicy profits, but the legal responsibility for these crimes against democracy risks being placed on it in the longer term.
In February 2023, the association’s investigative journalists Forbidden Stories released a new chapter of their “Story Killers” project1, revealing a network of Israeli companies that provide disinformation services to the highest bidders. These services, which take cyber warfare to another level, include smear campaigns, spreading fake news, and rigging elections and referendums.
Awareness of how social media, surveillance and data mining can influence elections came after the Cambridge Analytica scandal was made public in 20182. Cambridge Analytica influenced more than 200 elections around the world, and one of its main technology providers was Archimedes Group, an Israeli company. When one of her senior executives Brittany Kaiser appeared before the British Parliament to denounce these crimes, she claimed that she could not remember the names of the Israeli employees of Archimedes Group with whom she had worked.
Cyberwarfare in general and disinformation in particular are very dangerous weapons. They undermine the democratic process when used to influence elections by spreading rumors and misinformation, and they can also be deadly. Thus, the Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh was murdered in September 2017, a few days before publishing an article on disinformation and its dangers. She herself was the target of a campaign of slander. After her murder, it was discovered that the people who attacked her on social media never existed. Their accounts were later deleted, obscuring the tracks of those who had orchestrated the campaign.
An “army” of avatars on social networks
Five years later, Forbidden Stories has attempted to understand how this disinformation industry works. The collaboration of journalists from different countries led them to the Israeli town of Modi’in, where they posed as clients wishing to buy services to rig an election. They met several companies, all Israeli, ready to launch a disinformation campaign in their name for the modest sum of 6 million euros.
Forbidden Stories, in collaboration with Amnesty International and Citizen Lab, revealed in July 2021 how some Israeli companies are selling spyware to hack into the phones and computers of journalists, human rights activists, lawyers and men policies3. The ” Pegasus Project demonstrated how technology tested on Palestinian civilians has been used to bolster repression and grave human rights abuses around the world4.
Another facet of Israeli mercenary espionage has come to light. Companies in this sector are a one-stop shop that sells both spyware, spy services, email hacking – especially Gmail and Hotmail -, and messaging software – especially Telegram -, broadcasting fake news (fake news) and the destruction of the credibility of political candidates. They mainly do this by using fake profiles, avatars. They do this by stealing photos of real people and assigning them different names, social media accounts, and even e-wallets with real money. They also hire agents in the target countries so that they can verify phone numbers and addresses when developing these avatars. “Team Jorge”, one of these offices of the Israeli disinformation industry, thus has an “army” of 40 avatars of this type, created using artificial intelligence. The list of Israeli disinformation firms cited in the recent Story Killers investigation also includes Voyager Labs, Percepto, Cognyte, Verint, S000T Cyberspace and Demoman.
None of these technologies are unique to Israeli intelligence. The US, European and Chinese governments also have access to spyware and disinformation technology. Yet all of the companies that have been unmasked are Israeli companies, staffed by intelligence units that have exercised their skills in surveilling Palestinians, blackmailing them and mounting disinformation campaigns to sow discord between them.
“Spyware Diplomacy”
In any case, the Israeli monopoly on this sector is indeed the result of a government policy. While every country in the world with access to disinformation tools keeps them to themselves, private Israeli companies offer their services and technologies to customers around the world. The Story Killers investigation revealed that such companies have operated in Angola, Burkina Faso, Colombia, France, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and in other countries still.
According to Israeli law, companies are prohibited from exporting military security technology without the approval of the Ministry of Defense, even if these companies are not registered in Israel. Despite this, Tal Hanan of ‘Team Jorge’ told Forbidden Stories undercover reporters that he could do whatever he wanted without being checked by the Israeli authorities.5. He named only three countries with which he refuses to cooperate: Russia, the United States and Israel. This is of course a lie. The Israeli Ministry of Defense has a special counter-intelligence unit, the Malmab, responsible for monitoring agents of Israeli security organizations. In early March, Malmab cracked down on Israeli spyware company NFV for selling unauthorized spyware.
Tal Hanan says he has been dealing with fake news since 1997 and operates out of Israel. It is clear that the Israeli Ministry of Defense has its reasons for authorizing it. The assertion that the disinformation industry is unregulated in Israel is meant to allay the concerns of potential customers. But the government allows ex-officers to export military technology in order to win their loyalty, while establishing unofficial ties with countries with which it has no diplomatic relations. This is called the ” spyware diplomacy ».
Export the model of colonial domination
Israel’s disinformation, spyware and corporate espionage industries attempt to replicate Israel’s military experience in manipulating information for clients around the world. In most cases, so far, it has been a failure. The private Israeli intelligence agency Black Cube has thus been unmasked on several occasions by its victims. The spyware industry ended up tarnishing Israel’s foreign relations, and even “Team Jorge” was singled out for providing false information to the French host of BFMTV Rachid M’Barki, who was fired for relaying them without verification.
Encouraged by the Israeli government and armed with their experience of dominating Palestinians, the disinformation companies operate with little or no scruples. Tal Hanan told Forbidden Stories undercover reporters that, aside from fear of reprisals from Russian or American authorities, or going against one’s own Zionist loyalties by operating in Israel – “ We don’t shit where we eat he told reporters – he sets no limits to the chaos and suffering his services can cause, if priced right. For example, he boasted of having used an avatar to convince the wife of a political candidate that her husband was having an affair in order to sabotage their marriage and neutralize the candidate.
Another company, Percepto, run by Lior Chorev, political adviser to Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, did not hesitate to hire the services of a notorious anti-Semite to spread slander against the Red Cross in the service of a client in Burkina Faso, just as she did not hesitate to work for Israeli war criminals. Among his clients is also Mexican millionaire Tomás Zerón, wanted in Mexico on charges of kidnapping and torture. Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, who owns a controversial mining empire in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is accused of plundering the country’s natural resources and using disinformation campaigns to protect himself from criticism, has hired Lior Chorev to ensure his communication, as US authorities investigate his operations in the DRC.
War Criminals and the “Legal Iron Dome”
The giants Facebook and Twitter are complicit in the crimes committed by disinformation companies. Meta, formerly known as Facebook, sells user data from its companies6. Facebook and Twitter are making a profit from the dissemination of fake news, but they censor human rights activists, especially Palestinians. What’s more, when a scandal comes to light, they quickly remove the avatars. They claim to do this to protect users, but in reality they help to cover their tracks.
Lately, the protests in israel against the policies of the far-right government are receiving a great deal of attention. Protesters include retired officers, especially from intelligence units, employees from the high-tech sector, including security sectors, former members of the Shin Bet and Mossad, nuclear weapons experts and even spyware soldiers. These people are taking part in the protests because the judicial reforms implemented by the far-right Israeli government threaten their careers and even their freedom.
While theapartheid israel is becoming a pariah state and its courts can no longer even pretend to independently monitor the actions of the military and security forces and hold them to account, the profiteers of Israeli surveillance realize that they will not be able to no longer act with impunity. They risk being indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), facing sanctions from the United States and becoming increasingly isolated internationally. Israeli war criminals are losing their ‘legal iron dome’7.
Successive Israeli governments have allowed the disinformation industry to thrive for two decades as part of a deliberate policy. The benefits of these exports are short term and irresponsible in the long term. And while the research conducted by Forbidden Stories is very important in revealing the damage done, it is not enough.
Because the disinformation industry influences election results, it is almost impossible to track and expose it without access to confidential documents, in particular the authorizations given by the Israeli Ministry of Defense for each sale of services. disinformation by Israeli companies to each of their customers. Until the Israeli government releases these documents, legal responsibility for these crimes will rest solely with the Israeli government, and only state governments and international organizations (such as the United Nations and international tribunals) can compel Israel to accountable.
source: East XXI
