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, the head of France’s disinformation detection service Viginum said on Thursday.
Last month, Reuters reported that French authorities suspected BlackCore was behind an online smear campaign targeting three candidates from the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI) ahead of municipal elections in March this year.
“This modus operandi was not limited to municipal elections in France,” the head of Viginum, 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.”
French authorities opened a probe into the campaign after coming under mounting pressure to provide answers over incidents that raised awkward questions about the security of French elections.
Suspected crimes included foreign espionage, election fraud carried out with false news or fraudulent maneuvers, and online advocacy of terrorism, they said.
The operation under investigation targeted Marseille mayoral candidate Sébastien Delogu, Toulouse contender François Piquemal, and their Roubaix counterpart David Guiraud, according to French authorities and the candidates themselves.
Their party is regularly accused of antisemitism by some Jewish community leaders and political rivals – claims it denies – while many business figures fret about its high tax-and-spend policies.
