A SHADOWY Israeli firm meddled in Scotland’s elections, targeting the SNP and John Swinney specifically, according to a report from the French government.
Viginum, France’s service for vigilance and protection against foreign digital interference, also said that it had detected interference in elections in France and New York City from an Israeli firm called BlackCore.
After the firm was approached for comment on the report by Reuters, it appears to have gone to ground, with its website and social media presence being wiped. The identity of those behind the Israeli organisation has not been established.
The information about Scotland appears in the report from Viginum about an “information operation” that targeted the March 2026 municipal elections in France.
It says there were hundreds of fake accounts targeting Swinney and the SNP on social media, with the operation ending on May 8, the day after Scots went to the polls.
Here is everything the French government agency’s report says about BlackCore’s meddling in the Scottish elections:
While the primary activity of these [coordinated and fake] accounts involves amplifying posts dealing with lifestyle topics or digital assets, they nonetheless appear to be mobilised occasionally in more specific operations such as ‘Sadaqah Palestine’ or, more recently, concerning the latest elections in Scotland.
Indeed, the account of the Scottish First Minister, John Swinney, as well as that of his party, the Scottish National Party (SNP), appear to have been targeted on four occasions between 6 January and 8 May 2026 through the coordinated posting of English‑language comments from these inauthentic accounts.
In the context of this operation, Viginum identified the mobilisation of at least 256 accounts which enabled the dissemination of 1400 comments, mainly on posts by @JohnSwinney, @theSNP and @ScotGovFM (652, 338 and 112 comments respectively).”
“Sadaqah Palestine” appears to be a fake fundraising initiative that claimed to be raising money for Palestinians impacted by Israeli war crimes, but actually aimed to harvest data and fraudulently collect money.
Speaking at a press conference alongside French prime minister Sebastien Lecornu, Viginum chief Marc-Antoine Brillant said technical analysis had led investigators to BlackCore, whose activities were then mapped in a detailed report.
“This modus operandi was not limited to municipal elections in France,” Brillant said. “It also appears to have been used to carry out foreign digital interference operations in other countries or regions, such as Angola, Togo, the elections in Scotland, and the 2025 municipal election in New York.”
“Our investigations did not make it possible to identify the sponsor or sponsors, if indeed they exist, behind this foreign digital interference,” Brillant added.
Lecornu said Paris had formally asked the Israeli government for explanations about BlackCore’s actions, and for help in establishing who might be behind the smear efforts.
Israel’s embassy in Paris confirmed that France had made contact and said it was awaiting further details from the French investigation. “Israel has of course no intention to interfere in the French political process, be it at the national or municipal level,” it claimed.
Before wiping its online footprint following questions from Reuters, BlackCore had billed itself as “an elite influence, cyber, and technology company built for the modern era of information warfare”, offering governments and political campaigns tools “to shape narratives”.
