France: investigation exposes Israeli company behind ‘disinformation’ campaigns

The Investigation Unit of Radio France in cooperation with the Forbidden Stories Consortium has revealed that an Israeli company run by former members of the army and intelligence agencies is responsible for major disinformation campaigns. The expose has been linked to the case of Moroccan journalist Rachid M’Barki of BFMTV.

M’Barki was suspended a month ago by the channel due to him being exposed to “external influence” and presenting live news content that was “not subject to the usual verification or examination” on his nightly news programme. The channel’s own investigation seeks to find out if M’Barki acted alone, identify why policies and procedures were not followed to check output, and determine if the broadcast images “came from abroad”.

The 54-year-old veteran journalist joined BFMTV as a main presenter in 2005. He acknowledged “interference” and the possibility of an error in perspective that led him to “favour a friend.” He was suspended on 11 January by the channel director Marc-Olivier Fogiel after being warned about the possibility of biased news being broadcast.The warning came from journalist Frédéric Métézeau working in the investigation unit of Radio France as part of a broader investigation with the consortium.

The starting point in this case, though, is not in France but in Israel. Over several months, Métézeau and Gore Megiddo, investigative journalist for Israel’s The Marker newspaper, and Omer Benjakob of Haaretz, infiltrated a group specialising in influence, electoral manipulation and disinformation.

The organisation has no legal existence, although it has functioning offices. It is impossible to interview anyone due to the prevailing mistrust of the press and the sensitivity of the activities carried out. The employees present themselves as former officers in the Israeli army and intelligence services, or experts in financial information, military affairs, psychological warfare or social media. The investigative journalists presented themselves as “independent consultants” commissioned by an African client who wanted to influence the election in his country.

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“The customers often do not want us to appear,” said one Israeli group executive. “We prefer to stay behind the scenes, this is what makes us strong. We are active on all continents. We have intervened in 33 election campaigns at the presidential level, two-thirds of which are in English-speaking and Francophone countries of Africa.” Only three areas are kept away from, added a colleague: US national policy, Russia and Israel.

Disinformation through the internet is at the core of the group’s activity. It has developed a digital platform to allow the creation of fake profiles on the largest social media networks which has been sold to several national intelligence services. The system can create avatars of people who do not exist but have real online presence and trusted interests. These fake profiles post their “opinions” hoping to influence others as widely as possible on Twitter.

At the beginning of January, the system exploited 39,213 different fake profiles, which can be reviewed as a kind of catalogue. They cover all races, nationalities and gender, and use pictures of real people taken from the internet; stock surnames are kept on a database.

Journalists are apparently “recruited” from major international media outlets. Footage dated 19 September last year showed Rachid M’Barki talking about the difficulties facing the yacht industry in Monaco after sanctions were imposed on Russian oligarchs. Once broadcast, this was edited and circulated widely on Twitter by the group with the intention of discrediting the sanctions imposed on Russia.