Israeli contractor BlackCore trained Angolan officials in online influence operations

Israeli influence-for-hire company BlackCore trained Angolan government officials in online influence operations, providing them with the tools and training to create fake social media personas and produce content promoting the Angolan government. The company, described as “an elite influence, cyber, and technology firm built for the modern era of information warfare,” initially advertised the Angola project as an intensive four-week course covering storytelling, copywriting, traffic management, and social media operations, which ultimately lasted 14 weeks and involved both training and practical operations.

Participants produced more than 40 pieces of content, while trainers evaluated at least 24 publications. The program included Facebook and Instagram advertising and a TikTok campaign, with the intention of promoting what BlackCore called “positive government campaigns” – narratives designed to portray the Angolan government “in a positive light,” rather than merely attacking government opponents.

The operation centered around a Facebook page for a fictitious media outlet called “Agita News,” which published its own material and linked to articles on an external website. Both are now offline. BlackCore’s broader marketing materials advertised more aggressive capabilities, claiming it could provide clients with hundreds of fake personas, or “avatars,” across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Its services included flooding online platforms with coordinated messages, generating engagement from real users and countering unwanted narratives with tailored content.

Determining whether the training actually changed public opinion is difficult, but BlackCore appeared eager to demonstrate that its Angola operation was generating attention. Screenshots included in the company’s final report showed some deceptive Facebook posts receiving roughly 20,000 likes, while others approached 50,000 – “substantial amounts in a country with an estimated six million active Facebook users.”

Citizen Lab could not independently confirm that the training took place or determine which Angolan government employees participated, but the combination of internal documents and online infrastructure uncovered by researchers made it “highly likely” that the program occurred as BlackCore described it. BlackCore’s activities have previously drawn scrutiny from European authorities. France's foreign-interference watchdog Viginum said in June that an information operation targeting the left-wing France Unbowed party and some of its candidates during municipal elections showed technical links to Israeli actors, including BlackCore.

Meta said in an August threat report that it had disrupted a coordinated network originating in Israel that targeted audiences in Angola and several other countries, and Citizen Lab linked this network to BlackCore. BlackCore’s proposal for Angola promised what it called a “professional, robust, and scalable” system for government communications. “It is not highly common” for contractors to train their clients to conduct influence operations themselves, Fittarelli told Recorded Future News, rather than running campaigns on behalf of their clients. “Training clients to run their operations independently has been historically observed as a likely way to evade detection.”

BlackCore’s websites and social media accounts have been taken offline since the trainings, which likely began in February. Citizen Lab was unable to find a recent contact point for the company to seek comment, and the Angolan government did not respond to Recorded Future News’ request for comment.