Aims Software: Israeli Firm Behind Election Meddling in Dozens of Countries 

New Delhi: A team of Israeli contractors has allegedly been involved in meddling over 30 elections across the globe for over two decades without attracting any attention, a report said on Wednesday. 

This covert operation was unmasked by a team of international consortium of journalists including ‘The Guardian’ newspaper in the UK. The investigation report said that the so-called ‘Team Jorge’ unit is behind the manipulation of elections around the world. 

The ‘Team Jorge’ unit is headed by Tal Hanan, a 50-year-old former Israeli special forces operative, who is working privately under the pseudonym ‘Jorge’. The covert team is linked with software Advanced Impact Media Solutions (Aims) to operate fake social media campaigns across several countries including India. 

According to the report, Hanan's team is allegedly offering a sophisticated software package named Advanced Impact Media Solutions (Aims) to commercial clients as one of its key services. The ‘Team Jorge’ unit is accused of using hacking, sabotage and automated disinformation on social media. The Israeli-led unit controls thousands of fake social media profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Telegram, Gmail, Instagram and YouTube. 

The UK newspaper further stated that Hanan told the undercover reporters that his services were available to intelligence agencies political campaigns and private companies that wanted to secretly manipulate public opinion. He said they had been used across Africa, South and Central America, the US and Europe.

Three undercover journalists from Radio France, Haaretz and TheMarker, approached the unit as prospective clients and filmed the footage. Hanan showed them how the Aims (software) can create fake profiles instantly. 

“This is Spanish, Russian, you see Asians, Muslims. Let’s make a candidate together,” Hanan told undercover reporters. 

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 (With PTI inputs)