HOW ISRAELI BOT ARMY TARGETED AFRICAN ELECTIONS

Earlier this month, we posted an investigative report by The Guardian newspaper detailing how a covert Israeli operation called Team Jorge, boasted influencing dozens of elections worldwide. They included Nigeria’s in 2015, and the findings were based on an investigation by Paris-based NGO Forbidden Stories.

Well, here’s a look in more detail at how Team Jorge achieved its results by using secret software called AIMS, which weaponises social media to influence public opinion.

It’s leader, Tal Hanan, is a 50-year-old former Israeli special forces operative and is filmed revealing how it works. Clients can hire thousands of fake media accounts, called bots, which look and behave like real people. They have multiple profiles on multiple platforms including email. This army of automated avatars is then used to push particular messaging.

It’s claimed Hanan runs the scheme through an Israeli company, Demoman International, which is registered on a website run by the Israeli Ministry of Defense to promote defence exports. The service is offered to intelligence agencies, political campaigns and private companies that want to manipulate public opinion secretly.

In this video, Guardian journalist, Manisha Ganguly, lays bare the cyber-weaponry.