Investigating Foreign Election Interference

Here in Europe, there's quite an obsession with, uh,

so-called

Russian interference in elections. No evidence.

Alleged interference. No evidence is ever, uh, given for this

alleged, uh, interference. Uh, the French government established,

uh, an authority, a group, to monitor foreign influence

and, uh, uh, operations on social media, et cetera, to

manipulate opinion, uh, around the world when it comes

to elections. Now, what they found was interference

by an Israeli company, a private Israeli company.

Now, this French group, which was established to track down this type of

influence,

is called Vigenum. Now, their boss has made it very

clear what they found, and named the company Blackcore.

Vigenum's investigations have made it possible to geographically locate the

foreign

operator behind this malicious activity, a suspected Israeli company known

as Blackcore.

Its techniques were not limited to municipal elections in France.

They also appear to have been used to conduct foreign digital interference

operations in various countries and regions, such as Angola, Togo, the

elections in Scotland, and also the 2025 New York City mayoral

election.

Now, in Scotland, the campaign targeted John Swinney,

the head of the Scottish National Party, a pro-Palestinian,

pro-Scottish independence party.

Now, Vigenum, uh, identified two hundred and

fifty-six different accounts that were posting

anti-Swinney comments, uh, and operating a real

coordinated attempt to discredit him.

Uh, they went into some detail about what they

found. Here it is.

Vigenum identified an Israeli company operating in the field of influence

called Blackcore. Investigations conducted into this company

revealed digital infrastructure linked to this pseudo enterprise offering

services meant for the artificial amplification of online content and the

conduct of false information operations.

However, this entity appears to be part of an

ecosystem composed of

numerous Israeli cybersecurity companies.

While it didn't actually name who was behind the

commissioning of Blackcore, it did ask some questions

of the Israeli government.

As soon as the intelligence services saw that these interferences

originating from Israeli soil were occurring during the municipal

elections,

it goes without saying that we did indeed request explanations

and also

assistance. It could have been a private group in

Israel that has escaped the

vigilance or control of the Israeli government or state authorities.

Now, unsurprisingly, uh, Blackcore, uh,

has seemingly disappeared from the internet.

Uh, no trace can be found now, uh, that, uh, uncomfortable

questions are being asked, uh, by the French to the Israeli embassy.

They've disappeared. Somebody else that was asking questions was the

national newspaper who broke the story in the UK.

They've been asking the British, uh, state, the British government, uh,

for more

information about what they knew, uh, about this apparent

influence operation from a company based in Israel.

And again, very strange, but predictable silence from the

British. And speaking about it being back in

Britain, you have to

ask yourself, uh, why the same scrutiny has never been

applied to these

allegations of Russian interference where no evidence has ever

been found. Take Romania, for example, where the actual

election was annulled,

canceled, overruled on the basis of alleged

Russian disinformation campaigns.

I myself, uh, was detained, taken from an aircraft by

six armed police officers, detained, questioned, and

deported for the country for allegedly trying to influence the,

the elections because I was traveling, uh, on behalf of Russia today.

I arrived in, um, uh, Romania in Bucharest from

Dublin within the EU.

Um, and when I touched down in Bucharest,

a group of police officers, uh, before anyone was allowed to leave the

plane, uh, so I was taken down the, uh, steps of the

aircraft with all the passengers, uh, you know, watching,

uh, in amazement. I was asked questions in the vehicle by some

of the officers where, who I wa- where I was going, who I was, uh, going to

meet. I explained to them I was a journalist.

I was there to cover the elections.

I was presented with a document which

obviously was prepared. It was stamped presumably by a judge.

They wouldn't let me have a copy of it.

They wouldn't let me take a photograph of it.

Uh, and it s- said that I was a threat to

the security of the state, and on that basis, they were

deporting me from Romania. Talking about a lack of evidence when it

came to the Romanian election and its overruling, at least

in the UK, some people were still asking in the aftermath

of this debacle, a very serious, uh, security threat to British

democracy, uh, some people were, as I say, asking questions

about what the security state in the UK actually

knew about what had happened in the Scottish Parliament.

I have shared this with First Minister, anticipating that he will want to

understand more about this report and what actions remedial and future

or proactive are being taken.

So the question isn't whether, uh, there was interference in the

Scottish elections, French elections, and others.

Uh, the question is, what will those in power in the

UK reveal? They knew about an operation based, uh,

and coming from a, an Israeli private company, uh,

what they knew about what was happening.

You have to ask yourself, it seems that there seems to be a

complicity around this type of interference.

Now, when it comes to Russia allegedly

interfering

in foreign elections, no proof again, uh, there doesn't seem to

need to be any proof. Even mentioning the word Russia

and election in the same

sentence seems to be enough to get an election overruled in an

EU country like Romania. When it comes to the UK,

asking what was known about the evidenced

implication of an Israeli private company manipulating

online opinion about a senior politician seems to be a

no-no also. Make of that

as you will.