The healthy functioning of democracies depends on the quality of the information that frames debate within them. But digitalisation, the rise of social media and increasingly sophisticated forms of artificial intelligence are delivering new opportunities to poison the well of public discourse. Unfortunately, as a Guardian investigation this week illustrates, exploiting these is a 21st-century growth industry.
Alongside state-sponsored actors, increasing numbers of private firms are profiting from the dissemination of disinformation on behalf of political and corporate clients. Undercover research, in conjunction with 30 other media organisations, has exposed the inner workings of one such outfit – an Israeli black ops unit which combines the use of automated disinformation on social media with hacking and the seeding of fabricated stories in mainstream news outlets. The resulting revelations offer the deepest, most detailed insight yet into evolving forms of digital malpractice.
Codenamed Team Jorge, the unit is headed by a former Israeli special forces operative, who denies any wrongdoing. To manipulate online debate, it developed cutting-edge software to create tens of thousands of fake avatars. These were given a convincing digital backstory – even including Airbnb accounts – and operated in multiple countries, often intervening in commercial disputes. In the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office was targeted for online criticism as it sought clarity over the award of government PPE contracts during Covid. Separately, Team Jorge organised a fake “real world” protest in London, the impact of which was then amplified by the fake avatars.
Operatives infiltrated an election campaign in Nigeria and obtained documents. And key players in last year’s Kenyan election had their Gmail and Telegram accessed using hacking methods. The disinformation unit also appears to have targeted mainstream media, planting stories which were swiftly taken up by the bots. A Team Jorge member told the undercover investigators that it was responsible for a fake story favourable to sanctions-hit Russian oligarchs that was broadcast on France’s most-watched news channel. One of its presenters has now been suspended. Contacted by our reporters with evidence of fake accounts, Meta, the owner of Facebook, has taken down bots linked with Team Jorge’s software. But similarly bad actors are freely operating, undetected, throughout the world.
The professionalisation of a commercial disinformation industry, seeking to profit from lies and distortion, is one of the clear and present threats of our times. Rapid advances in the fields of artificial intelligence and virtual reality promise to deliver huge social gains; but they also offer new scope to blur the lines between the real and the fake, and the true and the false. The conspiracy theories propagated online during the Covid pandemic, and the riot on Capitol Hill following false claims that the US presidential election of 2020 was stolen, have shown where that can lead.
As technology leaps ahead, systems of regulation and public oversight must attempt to keep pace, and ensure that tech platforms become more accountable for the online environments they create. In an age of polarisation, disinformation undermines the presumption of good faith necessary for democratic debate and consensus. More attention must be paid to the activities of organisations such as Team Jorge, and more resources must be devoted to putting them out of business.
