Team Jorge: Journalists uncover election manipulation

Several internationally renowned investigative journalists have brought to light what had already been suspected for many years. A company based in Israel is said to have manipulated elections worldwide on a grand scale and also for large sums of money. Is this a new level of influence via social media?

Catching votes with a bulging wallet

Apparently, politicians around the world don’t just pay money to run a promising election campaign with posters, public appearances and free bratwursts. In return for payment, it is now also possible to influence public opinion via social media and other means. As a collaboration between well-known press outlets such as ZDF, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel and the Guardian has revealed, this approach has now become immensely more professional. Investigative journalists have been able to track down a company in Israel that openly talks about its successful projects for politics and business. The so-called “Team Jorge” is made up of people whose vita gives them access to many years of experience in the military and intelligence services.

In cooperation with them, not only fake news is placed in social media. On top of that, cyberattacks and threats are used to satisfy the clients. The investigative editorial team that “Team Jorge” has now brought to light is appropriately called “Fortbilden Stories”. The basis for the numerous reports, which have now been published on Spiegel Online, for example, is a kind of advertising message in which “Team Jorge” proudly presents its services. The talks cover a total of six hours, in which the boss Tal Hanan in particular blatantly points out the possibilities. And these seem frighteningly boundless. In the process, the company boss is said to have received proud sums of money from his clients. Reports indicate that the “service” costs between $400,000 and $600,000 a month.

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Team Jorge rigged 33 election campaigns

That behind the statements of Hanan are not empty words, he underpins in the talks with his references. Thus “team Jorge” would like to have already influenced according to own data on 33 election campaigns. Of these, 27 campaigns have been successful. Perfectly placed fake news on social media platforms was particularly helpful. Team Jorge” probably used its own program called Advanced Impact Media Solutions (Aims) for this purpose. This is primarily used to generate verified user accounts. According to the report, the program has now generated over 30,000 bots. These spread fake news on well-known platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. The headquarters of “Team Jorge” is said to be Modiin in Israel, according to the collaborating journalists.

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Hacker attacks on Telegram and Gmail

And the possibilities of “Team Jorge” seem to go even further. Thus, they apparently want to be able to carry out extensive hacking attacks. Even comprehensively protected services such as the strongly encrypted messenger Telegram and Google’s mail service Gmail could become targets. The team can probably use the SS7 network, which Gmail and Telegram rely on, without much effort to track more than just messages and calls. On top of that, smartphones could probably be easily located and phone calls monitored. The information gained from this would then also serve as a found food. For example, private information about politicians can be used to initiate smear campaigns. However, there is no sign of a guilty conscience on the part of Hanan, the company’s CEO. Even after the reports were published, he is said to deny all accusations.