Israeli contractor BlackCore trained Angolan officials in online influence operations
Citizen Lab links Israeli firm BlackCore to training Angolan officials to run covert influence campaigns with fake personas and pro-government content.
Citizen Lab documents show Israeli influence-for-hire firm BlackCore ran a 14-week training and operations program for Angolan officials, producing more than 40 pro-government content pieces through a fictitious outlet called Agita News. Posts received roughly 20,000 likes, with some later approaching 50,000, in a country with an estimated six million active Facebook users. France's Viginum previously linked BlackCore to interference targeting France Unbowed and suspected operations in New York, Scotland and Togo, and Meta disrupted a related Israel-origin network in August.
- The Angola program lasted 14 weeks and included Facebook, Instagram advertising and a TikTok campaign.
- Fictitious outlet Agita News was used to publish pro-government narratives and external links.
- BlackCore marketed hundreds of fake personas across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
- Viginum tied BlackCore to interference in France and suspected operations in New York, Scotland and Togo.
- Training clients to run operations themselves may be a deliberate evasion tactic, researchers said.
- Vendors
- BlackCore
- Products
- Agita News
- Threat actors
- BlackCore
- Victims
- Angola
- Organizations
- Citizen LabViginumMetaRecorded Future News
From the original article
3 min read at therecord.mediaAn Israeli influence-for-hire company trained Angolan government officials to run online influence operations, including by creating fake social media personas and media outlets, researchers found.
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