Israeli Firm BlackCore Trained Angolan Government Staff in Online Influence Operations, Citizen Lab Reports

BlackCore, an Israeli influence-for-hire company, operates across multiple countries, according to research by the Citizen Lab. The company describes itself on its website, blackcore[.]online, as “an elite influence, cyber, and technology company built for the modern era of information warfare and digital competition.”

Reuters reported on May 13, 2026, that BlackCore was allegedly involved in campaigns targeting public audiences in France and other unspecified countries. According to the Citizen Lab’s report, those campaigns were linked to the French municipal elections held on March 15 and 22, 2026, across approximately 35,000 communes.

On June 11, 2026, Viginum, the French governmental watchdog on election interference, published two reports confirming BlackCore’s targeting of the French municipal elections. The Viginum reports also noted that BlackCore had interfered in elections in New York, Scotland, Togo, and Angola.

The Citizen Lab identified one BlackCore campaign through analysis of Facebook and Instagram accounts and pages created during a training program for government employees in Angola, according to its report. That Angola initiative included the launch of a supervised influence operation. Separate reporting by The Record described documents obtained by researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. Those documents, the report said, showed that BlackCore provided a course that began as four weeks and expanded to 14 weeks, covering storytelling, copywriting, traffic management, and social media operations.

According to The Record, participants produced more than 40 pieces of content, and trainers evaluated at least 24 publications. The program included Facebook and Instagram advertising and a TikTok campaign. The operation centered on a Facebook page for a fictitious media outlet called “Agita News.” The Record reported that both the page and its external website are now offline. Screenshots showed some deceptive Facebook posts receiving up to 50,000 likes, a substantial portion of Angola’s estimated six million active Facebook users. Honest speech in public life matters here, as Ephesians 4:15 frames it, because the posts presented themselves as ordinary news.

The reports differ on how far the Angola evidence goes. The Citizen Lab’s findings, as reported by The Record, state that the Citizen Lab could not independently confirm the training took place or identify which Angolan government employees participated. It also found no evidence of how BlackCore was hired or whether the government paid for the work. The Citizen Lab’s own report, by contrast, describes its identification of the campaign through accounts and pages created during the Angola training program. The available reports do not say whether the Israeli government had any role in BlackCore’s work.