France accuses Israeli firm of interfering in Scottish elections and targeting SNP

France’s cyber-security agency has accused an Israeli firm called BlackCore of interfering in the Scottish elections earlier this year by targeting the first minister, John Swinney.

The disinformation detection agency Viginum said BlackCore had used proxy social media accounts to target Swinney, the Scottish National party and the Scottish government on four occasions this year.

Viginum said BlackCore had focused its operations on municipal elections in France but had also targeted the mayoral elections in New York, won by Zohran Mamdani, and other countries such as Togo and Angola.

Speaking alongside the French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, at a press conference on Thursday, Viginum’s chief de service, Marc-Antoine Brillant, said its investigations had identified BlackCore as the culprit but that it was still unclear who had commissioned the company to do so.

“This modus operandi was not limited to municipal elections in France,” he 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.”

Brillant added: “Our investigations did not make it possible to identify the sponsor or sponsors, if indeed they exist, behind this foreign digital interference.”

Lecornu (left) speaking alongside Brillant (right) and Nicolas Roche, the defence and national security secretary. Photograph: Harsin Isa/ABACA/Shutterstock

The Viginum report alleges that Swinney, the SNP and the devolved government in Edinburgh were targeted by a “specific campaign” between 6 January and 8 May this year, before and during a hard-fought election for the Scottish parliament.

It said BlackCore had been involved with the “coordinated posting” and mobilisation of at least 256 accounts on the social media platform X, which enabled the distribution of about 1,400 comments. Swinney’s account was targeted 652 times, the SNP’s 338 and the Scottish government’s 112.

Swinney and fellow ministers have been vocal in their criticism of the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank, and have imposed a form of sanctions on the Israel Defense Forces by withholding state grants to arms firms that supply the IDF and freezing support for exports to Israel.

The news agency Reuters, which has previously reported on BlackCore, said the company had scrubbed its website after it was contacted by its reporters and had not responded to requests to comment.

Previously BlackCore had described itself as “an ⁠elite influence, cyber and technology company built for the modern era of information warfare”. It had ​said it provided governments and political campaigns with “cutting-edge strategies, advanced tools, and robust security to shape narratives”.

The Israeli government said it was waiting to receive the French report before deciding whether to conduct its own investigation, and denied it had any interest in interfering in other countries’ elections. The Scottish government and UK Cabinet Office have been approached for comment.

Swinney said online disinformation posed “a real and present threat” to democracy, and urged the UK government to make hostile state interference a much higher priority in line with recommendations from Philip Rycroft’s recent review.

“It is clear that orchestrated disinformation campaigns and foreign election interference are issues which need to be taken seriously,” Swinney said. “Urgent steps need to be taken to counter the threat of foreign online political interference, and ensure that our democratic processes are not undermined in this way.”

Speaking in general terms, Lecornu said this week that there was a risk that next year’s French presidential election could be targeted by international interference and disinformation, without naming any potential perpetrators. After meeting political parties to discuss this threat with them, he said “the entire political class” could be a target.