‘Team Jorge’: Here’s how the factory that creates thousands of fake social media accounts is working to manipulate elections around the world

The ‘Team Jorge’ factory has operated in different countries creating disinformation campaigns to damage public image and influence election results (Shutterstock)

A team capable of creating thousands of fake accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, LinkedIn, Gmail and Youtube. But not one of those easy to detect by name @Carlitos8474738737 and zero messages. No. Accounts with real names, real photos, and who have been tweeting for a long time and participating in networks expressing their opinions naturally on different subjects. Until the day they start doing it fiercely for a certain purpose: destroy the reputation or background of a public official, politician, government agency or business. They are not one, five or ten. There are up to 30,000 fake avatars working in coordination in a gigantic campaign for the specific purpose of sinking with fake news someone’s prestige.

The service is available to anyone who can pay for it and offer it Tal Hanan a former member of the Israeli special forces who uses the alias Jorge and played with his team”Jorge Team in elections around the world over the past few decades.

“We have intervened in 33 presidential campaigns, 27 of which were successful Hanan bragged to reporters about The Guardian, The mirror there The world who spoke for six hours with him in his office in an industrial park on the outskirts of Tel Aviv posing as customers interested in his services as part of an investigation coordinated by the consortium Forbidden Stories 30 European media took part.

Hanan told reporters that his services, which some call “covert operations,” were available to intelligence agencies, political campaigns and private companies that wanted to secretly manipulate public opinion. He said they had been used in Africa, Central and South America, the United States and Europe.

Tal Hanan, aka Jorge, captured by the hidden camera of reporters who interviewed him posing as potential clients

The flagship product of the intervention package in electoral contests or communication campaigns offered by “Team Jorge” is the software Advance Impact Medio Solutions (AIMS), able to control the army of fake avatars (some of them even have Amazon or Airbnb accounts with credit cards on file, so no one doubts they are real people!)

During the lengthy chat with reporters, “Jorge” and his team explained some of the strategies they use to embarrass political campaigns. In one country, they assured, they sent him via Amazon a sex toy at a candidate’s house so that his wife suspects he has a mistress.

Another case: In October 2020, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), a UK government office dedicated to administrative oversight, ruled that the names of a series of companies that appeared to have won contracts as government suppliers through a special channel for companies with political contacts. Within days, on Twitter and other social networks, harsh criticism against ICO began to appear: “It does everything to destroy the government”; “Another Desperate ICO Act”; “It’s a waste of time”, “Too bad”. Replies to messages turned into threads with false accusations of corruption and bribery.

One of the Twitter users who started with the criticism, “Canaelan looked like a normal guy. “I had tweeted about everything from basketball to Taylor Swift to Tottenham Hotspur football club and the price of a KitKat. The profile features a friendly looking blonde man with a three day beard and glasses who he says lives in Sheffield.” The Guardian. But Canaelan is nothing more than a “Team Jorge” army bot. His photo, according to reporters, belongs to Tom Van Rooijen, a Dutch freelance journalist. Thus, the journalists in charge of this investigation managed to detect some two thousand AIMS bots on Twitter and Facebook.

“It’s our own semi-automated avatar creation and network deployment system,” Hanan explained, adding that it could be used in any language and was sold as a service, though. that the software can be purchased “if the price is right”.

“Jorge” Hanan also demonstrated to undercover reporters how he could access the Gmail or Telegram accounts of the person he was targeting. “Today, if someone has a Gmail account, it means they have much more than an email account,” he said, showing them emails, speech drafts, contacts and files of what he said was a man who is “a major’s assistant”. gender” in the upcoming Kenyan general elections.

“In some countries they think Telegram is safe. I’ll show you how safe it is,” he told reporters before showing them a screen scrolling up and down the Telegram contacts of a Kenyan strategist who works for Guillaume Ruto, the candidate who ended up winning the presidential election. “I don’t just see it all,” he warned, before typing “Hi, how are you sweetie?” and apparently send this message from the strategist’s account to one of his contacts.

“One of the most important things is putting sticks between the right people, you know?” he said. “And I can write you what I think of your wife, or what I think of your last speech, or I can tell you that I promised you that you would be my next chief of staff, is that clear? ”

Next, Hanan showed how, after reading the message, he could “delete” it to cover his tracks. But he made a mistake and forgot to delete an “11” number he had sent to one of the accounts he had hacked. A few days later, one of the journalists managed to contact this person and was able to verify that he had “11” on the phone hacked by “Team Jorge”.

One of the Telegram accounts hacked by “Team Jorge”

The team is made up of “graduates of government agencies”, with experience in finance, social media and campaigns, as well as “psychological warfare”, operating from six offices around the world, has boasted Hanan.

Hanan suggested to reporters that some of his hacking methods exploited vulnerabilities in the global telecommunications signaling system, SS7, which for decades was considered by experts to be a weak point in the network. “Of course, there is nothing illegal in what we are doing,” he defended himself.

By tracking his internet activity, the research team identified his involvement in what appeared to be mostly trade disputes in about 20 countries, including United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Panama, Senegal, Mexico, Morocco, India, United Arab Emirates, Zimbabwe, Belarus and Ecuador.

The analysis revealed a wide range of bot activity, with fake AIMS social media profiles involved in a California nuclear power dispute; a #MeToo controversy in Canada; a campaign in France involving a Qatari UN official; and elections in Senegal.

“There’s nothing illegal about what we do,” says Halal, who says he only profits from hackers in computer systems

Links to Cambridge Analytica

The story dates back to 2018, when the British company scandal broke. Cambridge Analyticawhich collected, analyzed and used for political purposes the personal data of nearly 87 million Facebook users, without their knowledge.

Although they are accused of having manipulated numerous elections, of having contributed to the victory of Donald Trump in 2016 and to Brexit, their actors still remain in the shadows. In particular, the mysterious Israeli subcontractors, experts in hacking and whose existence and methods have been revealed by the British company itself, but not their identity. He used only one name, probably a nickname, to designate the head of this ultra-secret Israeli structure: “Jorge”.

For more than six months, journalists from Forbidden Stories they investigated and followed the trail of “Jorge”. They found him posing as the chief broker to an African leader keen to postpone or even cancel elections in his country.

The mysterious Israeli “consultant” – who continues to use the same nickname and sell his influence and manipulation services to the highest bidder – is now using artificial intelligence to write his viral posts.

Tentacles in Mexico and Spain

In Mexico, the company “Jorge” would have intervened in favor of Thomas Zero, a former Mexican official investigated the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, reports the Forbidden Stories website.

Zerón, head of the Criminal Investigation Agency from 2013 to 2016, is accused of kidnapping, torture and manipulation of evidence in the case of the disappearance of young people from Ayotzinapa (Warrior Status).

And in Spain, the “Team Jorge” would have intervened during the referendum, not recognized by the Spanish government, organized by the Catalan separatists in 2014, adds the consortium.