Tal Hanan, a former Israeli special forces operative, who runs 'Team Jorge'.
An insurgent group based in a particular place that keeps a hawk’s eye on every happening on Earth, making attempts to subjugate everything. Governments that charter groups to send invisible troops targeting human societies in different countries to manipulate, corrupt and entrap their minds to conquer money and power. Citizens who vote for militants overlooking their own interests under the influence of invisible robots - this is not a fantasy or make-believe imagination from any fictional novel or a science fiction in a horror movie.
The fact that an Israeli organisation has admitted in a secretly filmed footage that they have meddled in the democratic processes of over 30 countries including India and rigged the elections is a frightening reality. ‘Team Jorge’ as the private contract group is known, used digital technology to spread disinformation and hate messages thereby moulding public opinion, for extremist right-wing organisations.
The findings of the investigation led by a consortium of journalists that included reporters from 30 outlets called Forbidden Stories. Team Jorge has been successful in influencing discourses on social media on a large scale by using special software and ‘bots’ to hack social media accounts and create numerous fake accounts. They operate in accordance with the contracts given by the ‘customers’ or clients in various countries thus waging psychological warfare capable of sabotaging the elections. And consequently, the victimised societies are brainwashed and compelled to vote for those with vested interests rather than their own.
The journalists found that Team Jorge run by a former Israeli special forces operative, is not an isolated group. They offer their ‘services’ to the power-mongers/ power seekers in different countries in the form of contracts by charging big money. The team has revealed that it had meddled in elections in 33 countries, including the UK, the US, Canada, Germany and Switzerland and won 27 of them. Even if they may be seen as exaggerating their capability in order to secure new ‘contracts’, things are extremely alarming.
There are evidences of infiltration and leakage of documents during elections in Nigeria. E-mails and social media accounts of political leaders were also hacked during elections in Kenya. Fake news was planted in many mainstream media. This disinformation was then multiplied manifold through bots. After the news broke out, only Facebook removed the numerous bots planted by Team Jorge.
Bots of the group are operational on other social media platforms as well. Our country is also an example of how fake propaganda influences democratic social processes, including elections. AIMS (Advanced Impact Media Solutions), is a software which uses information and communications platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, G-mail, Telegram, Amazon and Airbnb for spreading fake news and misinformation on a large scale; innumerable fake accounts; an invisible digital army comprising 30,000 bots just for spreading disinformation - India is one of their target countries. Anyone who is aware of the role of fake propaganda in the elections here cannot let pass the revelations by Team Jorge without worrying.
It is reminiscent of the controversy over the purchase of Pegasus software from Israel in 2017 as part of a defence deal. In the past, it has been found that the computers and phones of journalists and opponents in India had been hacked. It has also been found that fake information was secretly planted in the computer systems of those who criticise the government in order to fabricate evidence.
Strangely, the government has not been willing even to point fingers at the perpetrators who have committed this international crime of violating the privacy of citizens and making false allegations against them. Equally surprising is the fact that strange as it may seem, even as the global media community has now come out with strong evidence of rigging elections in many countries, there has been no sign of shock or surprise from the world's nations. Only the poor civil societies lose in the battle where the governments collude and give contracts to those like Team Jorge to retain their power.