An Israeli firm manipulated elections worldwide for a fee. A team of investigative journalists has discovered this. The so-called Team Jorge served clients from both business and politics.
International research involving journalists from the German magazine Der Spiegel, Knack and Le Soir shows that the company employs ex-soldiers and ex-agents, among others, who entirely use fake news and hacking methods.
The researchers base their findings on six hours of secretly recorded chats in which company manager Tal Hanan introduces his team and their services.
According to Hanan, that team has interfered in 33 national election campaigns and elections, including in Kenya and Nigeria. About 27 missions were successful, according to the businessman in the recorded conversations.
To manipulate social media, the team developed its own platform, Aims, with which verified user accounts can be created. Unfortunately, not all of his claims could be independently verified.
