French Intelligence Services Suspect Israeli Company BlackCore of Interfering in Elections in USA, Europe, and Africa

VIGINUM, the French agency for protection against foreign digital interference, suspects the Israeli company BlackCore of interfering in local elections in France, municipal elections in New York, as well as elections in Scotland, Angola, and Togo.

This information came to light in a report by the Secretary-General for Defence and National Security (SGDSN), of which VIGINUM is a part.

In March 2026, VIGINUM uncovered a cyber operation dubbed Rokh Solis. It was built around a network of websites and social media accounts aimed at discrediting the political party Unbowed France, as well as several of its candidates in the municipal elections on March 15 and 22, 2026.

The identified network of websites shared common technical characteristics: the same IP address, registration date, image metadata, and so on. They were also coordinated and disseminated via TikTok, Instagram, X, and Facebook accounts exhibiting several signs of inauthenticity.

The openly hostile editorial line of this ecosystem fit into a strategy to broadly discredit the Unbowed France party and smear its candidates in Marseille, Toulouse, and Roubaix.

In addition, intelligence officials uncovered the artificial creation of a debate by simultaneously promoting two antagonistic ideological positions: on one side, a conservative, identitarian, and sovereigntist movement, and on the other, a pseudo-radical Islamist group. This was aimed at polarizing the national public debate by exploiting the Muslim community.

The French Prime Minister stated that Paris had asked Israel for help in determining who might have commissioned BlackCore’s services.

The Israeli Embassy in Paris confirmed that France had raised the issue and stated that it was awaiting details of the French investigation to conduct its own review.

The company is also suspected of interfering in elections in New York and Scotland, as well as of activities in Angola and Togo. Meanwhile, VIGINUM CEO Marc-Antoine Brillant added that it remains unclear who commissioned BlackCore’s interference in France.

“Our investigations have not identified the client or clients, if they indeed exist, who were behind this foreign digital interference,” he said.

As a reminder, in March, Slovenian law enforcement accused the private Israeli intelligence firm Black Cube of interfering in the country’s electoral process.

According to the investigation, operatives from the firm—founded by former Israeli intelligence officers—were involved in gathering compromising information and conducting illegal wiretapping. The stated goal of the operation was to discredit then-Prime Minister Robert Golob a few days before the parliamentary elections.