Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of election interference in France, NYC, Scotland

An Israeli cyber company suspected of interfering in French local elections and targeting pro-Palestinian candidates also allegedly meddled in votes in New York City and Scotland and ran operations in Angola and Togo, officials in Paris have said.

Last month, a Reuters report claimed that French authorities believed Israeli firm BlackCore was behind an online smear campaign targeting three French mayoral candidates from the left-wing, pro-Palestine France Unbowed party (LFI) – in Marseille, Toulouse, and Roubaix – ahead of March local elections.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez later confirmed that a probe was underway but would not reveal the focus of the investigation.

On Thursday, France’s government disinformation detection agency, Viginum, suggested that BlackCore may have been operating well beyond France.

“This modus operandi was not limited to municipal elections in France”, Viginum chief Marc-Antoine 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.”

Viginum said it detected BlackCore-linked accounts targeting John Swinney, the first minister of Scotland, who has described Israel’s campaign in Gaza as a “man-made humanitarian catastrophe” and said a genocide may be unfolding in the Palestinian enclave.

Regarding New York, Brillant did not explicitly say who was targeted in the 2025 mayoral race, but the vote was won by Zohran Mamdani – a self-declared socialist and longtime supporter of Palestine, who became the first Muslim elected mayor of the city.

The Viginum chief acknowledged that the probe “did not make it possible to identify the sponsor or sponsors, if indeed they exist, behind this foreign digital interference.” However, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Paris had asked Israel for explanations on BlackCore’s actions and for help identifying whoever may have been behind the smear campaign.

BlackCore has described itself as “an elite influence, cyber, and technology company built for the modern era of information warfare” that provided governments and political campaigns with “cutting-edge strategies, advanced tools and robust security to shape narratives.” After press scrutiny, its website and LinkedIn page went offline.

The controversy comes against the backdrop of increasingly strained France-Israel ties, with Paris condemning West Jerusalem over its strikes in Lebanon, a former French mandate territory, which have led to mounting civilian casualties.

France has also barred Israel’s right-wing national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, from entering the country, after he posted a video of himself taunting blindfolded and zip-tied activists from the Global Sumud Gaza aid flotilla, which included French citizens.