An Israeli Firm Is Suspected of AI Election Meddling in Three Countries

Reuters says BlackCore Technologies ran covert influence operations in the New York City mayoral race, the Scottish elections, and a French municipal campaign. France has formally asked Israel for explanations. The same firm is linked to a fake Gaza charity that collected donations and never delivered them. The story is the first documented case of an Israeli private-intelligence firm accused of running AI-generated election content in three Western democracies at once.

State of Surveillance Editorial Team

TL;DR:

  • BlackCore Technologies, an Israeli private-intelligence firm, is suspected of covertly influencing the 2025 New York City mayoral race, the Scottish elections, and a 2024 French municipal campaign, Reuters reported June 13.
  • The operations used AI-generated content. The exact tooling and reach have not been disclosed publicly, but multiple outlets confirm synthetic media was part of the playbook.
  • French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the French government has asked Israel for explanations and for help identifying who was behind the smear campaign.
  • The same firm is linked to a fake Gaza humanitarian charity that collected donations and never delivered them, per Haaretz. The dual identity, intelligence work and humanitarian-fraud fundraising, is the pattern that should worry election regulators in 2026.
  • The story lands the same week the Federal Election Commission remains deadlocked on AI deepfake rules, the EU is drafting a smart-glasses crackdown, and a UK police officer stands accused of using AI to fabricate evidence. The infrastructure for AI-driven election interference is in place. The enforcement is not.
  • This is the first documented case of a single Israeli private-intelligence firm accused of running AI election interference operations in three Western democracies at the same time.

What Reuters Reported

On June 13, 2026, Reuters published an investigation identifying BlackCore Technologies, an Israeli private-intelligence firm, as the suspected operator of covert influence campaigns in the 2025 New York City mayoral race, the recent Scottish elections, and a 2024 French municipal election cycle [1].

The report was light on operational details, as one Hacker News commenter put it, and that is by design. The allegations come from French investigators, who have been probing BlackCore's role in a smear campaign that targeted French municipal candidates in 2024. Reuters corroborated the French investigation with two additional law-enforcement sources, who confirmed the same firm was active in the NYC and Scottish elections. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are ongoing.

The most concrete detail so far: AI-generated content was used. Reuters did not disclose the volume, the channels, or the specific candidates targeted. The New York City race was won by Zohran Mamdani in a landslide over Andrew Cuomo. The Scottish election cycle produced a sharp shift toward the Scottish National Party. The French municipal cycle featured a coordinated anti-left disinformation campaign that French investigators have been tracking since 2024.

France Asked Israel for Explanations

The most concrete official action so far is diplomatic. French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu told French media the government has formally asked Israel for explanations of BlackCore's actions and for help identifying who was behind the smear campaign [1].

The Israeli government responded with a denial. "Israel has of course no intention to interfere in the French political process, be it at the national or municipal level," an Israeli statement said, in language that the Hacker News thread and several French outlets found less than reassuring given the pattern of denials that follow every new Israeli-influence scandal of the last decade.

The Lecornu statement is the first time a Western government has formally accused an Israeli private-intelligence firm by name of running election interference on its soil, and the first time the accusation has been tied to AI-generated content. The French investigations predate the NYC and Scottish campaigns by at least 18 months, which is what made the cross-border pattern visible.

The Fake Gaza Charity That Collected Donations and Never Delivered Them

Haaretz reported June 11, 2026, that BlackCore is also the suspected operator of a fake Gaza humanitarian charity that raised donations from European donors and never delivered aid [2]. The charity ran a polished public-facing operation: branded website, social media presence, donor receipts, and reports that quoted real-sounding field conditions. The donors believed they were funding Gaza relief. The money went somewhere else.

The dual identity is the pattern that should worry election regulators. A firm that can run a fake humanitarian charity in Europe and a covert influence campaign in three Western elections is operating a multi-line influence business, with the AI-generated content as the shared tooling.

Haaretz's reporting tied BlackCore's fundraising operation to the same operatives who ran the 2024 French smear campaign, based on shared infrastructure and shared personnel. The investigation is ongoing. French prosecutors have not yet filed charges against named individuals.

What BlackCore Is and Is Not

BlackCore Technologies is not the same firm as Black Cube, the better-known Israeli private intelligence and opposition-research outfit that was exposed for running operations against critics of Harvey Weinstein and NSO Group in 2018 to 2019. Several Hacker News commenters conflated the two in the thread on the Reuters report. The firms share a "black" branding, a Tel Aviv headquarters, and a former-Mossad-and-IDF staffing pipeline. They are otherwise separate operations [1][2].

What BlackCore is alleged to have done, per Reuters and Haaretz:

  • Runs a private-intelligence contract business for clients in Europe and North America
  • Operates AI-generated content for hire, including social media influence campaigns
  • Is suspected of running the 2024 French anti-left smear campaign
  • Is suspected of running influence operations in the 2025 NYC mayoral race and the 2025 to 2026 Scottish election cycle
  • Is linked to a fake Gaza humanitarian charity that collected donations in Europe

What BlackCore is not alleged to have done: developed or sold a spyware product like NSO Group's Pegasus or Paragon's Graphite. The firm is in the influence-and-research line, not the exploit-and-implant line. That distinction matters for the regulatory response: a private-intelligence firm that runs influence campaigns operates in a different legal and export-control regime than a spyware vendor, and Israeli export-license authorities have historically had more to say about the spyware side than the influence side.

The AI Influence Playbook in 2026

The BlackCore allegations sit at the intersection of two trends we have been tracking for the last six months: AI-generated election content, and the rise of private-influence firms that operate across borders with no public accountability.

On the AI side, the 2026 U.S. midterm primaries are already the first cycle with widespread synthetic media and effectively zero federal rules. The Federal Election Commission is deadlocked 3-3 on AI regulation. Congress has not passed the AI Disclosure Act. 28 states have passed political deepfake laws, but most only require disclaimers, and several have already been struck down on First Amendment grounds.

On the influence-firm side, Cambridge Analytica's 2016 playbook has been industrialised. A network of contractors in Israel, the U.S., and several European countries now offers AI-driven campaign services to whoever will pay. The clients are political parties, business interests, and governments. The contractors often do not disclose their clients. The work is structured to be deniable.

BlackCore, per Reuters, allegedly operated in three of those jurisdictions at once. That is the new scale.

What It Means for You

If you are a voter in the U.S. The 2026 midterms are the first federal election cycle where a private firm has been publicly accused by name of running AI-generated influence operations in a U.S. race. The NYC mayoral race, the Scottish elections, and the 2024 French municipal cycle are the three documented cases. The same tooling, if accurate, will be available to whoever is willing to pay for it in every U.S. state-level race this year. The FEC is not going to fix it. State disclosure laws will catch only the most blatant cases.

If you are a journalist or researcher. Reuters, Haaretz, and French investigators have done the foundation work here. The next round is: who hired BlackCore? The firm's clients are not named in the public record. The Reuters story sources are anonymous. The Haaretz story is behind a paywall. The most useful next step is to identify the clients, the funding path, and the specific content that was distributed.

If you are a campaign staffer or party operative. The defensive question is not "did my opponent use AI" but "did a third-party firm use AI on behalf of an undisclosed client." The 2026 cycle is the first where the answer is plausibly yes in three Western jurisdictions, and the answer is going to be harder to find than the disinformation itself.

If you donated to Gaza humanitarian charities in 2024 to 2025. Cross-check the charity against Haaretz's reporting on the fake Gaza charity operation. If you donated to a charity that turns out to be one of the fraudulent fronts, your donation was part of the funding base for the same network that ran the 2024 French smear campaign. Document your donation, request a refund, and report the charity to your local regulator.

What to Watch Over the Next 30 Days

  • Whether French prosecutors name individuals. Lecornu said the government is asking Israel for help. The next step is either a formal Mutual Legal Assistance request, an indictment, or both. Watch the French financial prosecutor's office (Parquet National Financier) for filings.
  • Whether the Israeli government revokes BlackCore's export license. Israeli export licensing has historically responded to spyware-vendor scandals (NSO, Candiru) more aggressively than to influence-firm scandals. The pattern may break with the Haaretz fake-charity reporting, because charity fraud is a clearer legal line.
  • Whether the U.S. DOJ opens a parallel investigation. The 2025 NYC mayoral race is a U.S. election. The DOJ election-crimes unit has historically been cautious about influence-firm prosecutions on First Amendment grounds, but the charity-fraud angle is a federal crime regardless of the speech issue.
  • Whether other outlets identify the specific candidates and content. Reuters did not name the specific NYC or Scottish candidates BlackCore allegedly targeted, and did not publish the content. The next round of reporting will be the first time voters can see what was actually distributed.
  • Whether a second firm is named. One firm across three jurisdictions is the story. A second firm named in the same investigation would be the pattern.

The Bottom Line

Reuters reported June 13 that BlackCore Technologies, an Israeli private-intelligence firm, is suspected of running AI-generated influence campaigns in the 2025 New York City mayoral race, the 2025 to 2026 Scottish elections, and a 2024 French municipal cycle. French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu has formally asked Israel for explanations. Haaretz reported separately that the same firm is linked to a fake Gaza humanitarian charity that collected donations in Europe and never delivered them. This is the first documented case of a single Israeli private-intelligence firm accused of running AI election interference in three Western democracies at the same time, and the first time the accusation has been tied to a humanitarian-fraud operation in parallel.

The story is also the standing counterpoint to the 2026 narrative that AI election interference is a problem of "social media" or "deepfakes" in the abstract. The infrastructure is a network of contractors who run influence campaigns for hire, with AI-generated content as the tooling. The clients are not named. The work is structured to be deniable. The first time a Western government has named the firm and asked for explanations is now. Watch for the next move from Paris, from the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and from the U.S. Department of Justice over the next 30 days.

Sources

  1. Reuters: "Israeli firm BlackCore also suspected of meddling in New York, Scotland votes, French say" (June 13, 2026, the primary source for the BlackCore identification, the French Lecornu statement asking Israel for explanations, the AI-generated content angle, and the three-jurisdiction scope)
  2. Haaretz: "The Fake Gaza Charity Linked to the Anti-Left Disinformation Campaign in France" (June 11, 2026, paywalled, the source for the BlackCore fake-Gaza-charity link, the dual identity as both influence-firm and humanitarian-fraud operator, and the shared-infrastructure tie to the 2024 French campaign)
  3. Hacker News: Reuters thread on the BlackCore story (721 points, 30 comments, the source for the community flagging of the Black Cube / BlackCore distinction, the Haaretz fake-charity link, the Slovenia EU question, and the public-attention measurement that placed the story as a top-3 trend of the day)
  4. Wikipedia: Black Cube (the standing reference for the older, separate Israeli private-intelligence firm, used to draw the distinction between BlackCore and Black Cube in the "What BlackCore Is and Is Not" section above)
  5. France 24: Israeli firm and election meddling (the 2023 predecessor coverage of the pattern of Israeli private-intelligence firms running influence operations in European elections, used as the historical context in the "AI Influence Playbook in 2026" section)