Thread by @jsrailton

WHOA: Team of Israeli ex-spies boast of manipulating 33 elections w/ #hacking & #bots.

Tricked into demoing #telegram hacking & bot army to undercover investigators.

By @skirchy @manisha_bot @davidtpegg @carolecadwalla & @burke_jason
theguardian.com/world/2023/feb…

2/ “After you’ve created credibility, what do you do? Then you can manipulate"

Good to see @Meta take action on these accounts.

Honestly though we are at the absolute tip of the iceberg.

3/ Here he is demoing access to the #Gmail of a purported key political insider in #Kenya just days before the election.

This tech & tactics is kerosene on the flames of democracy.

4/ “I know in some countries they believe #Telegram is safe. I will show you how safe it is”

Yikes.

Unclear how he is gaining access to these #Gmail & Telegram accounts, but the talk of #SS7 is a good hint.

And yet another reminder: SMS is not a safe second factor.

5/ Great to see mercenary election manipulators exposed. Solid journalism.

Trust me, this is a window into a *much bigger industry* active in elections around the world.

So rare to see it caught.

6/ The fact that so much political activity happens on a handful of platforms makes the tooling for political manipulation really interoperable.

Also radically lowers barriers to entry.

Making mercenary election manipulation scaleable & easy to export.

7/ Of course, we don't know whether these guys have successfully changed the outcome of any election.

The guy here is also pretty clearly boasting & trying to sell.

But the mere fact of mercenary election manipulators running around is damaging, even when they don't win.

8/ Even if mercenary election manipulators don't successfully throw an election (e.g. successfully shift mass sentiment), bots, hacking & turbocharged dirty tricks can distort political culture.

Opposing parties have to adjust.

And the net result is harm to democracy.

9/ UPDATE: @haaretzcom reports the mercenary political manipulators targeted 🇺🇸US politicians.

Like @GavinNewsom in #California

Topic: #diablocanyon nuclear plant

Were taxpayer funds routed to #TeamJorge for that op?

STORY haaretz.com/israel-news/se…

10/ Powerful coda to this remarkable story

https://twitter.com/avischarf/status/1625741253412364288

11/ Really remarkable undercover work went into this story.

Huge credit to @omerbenj @GurMegiddo & @FredMetzo for pulling off such a feat.

These are paranoid people confessing to illegal things, it cannot have been easy.

https://twitter.com/omerbenj/status/1625771056488144897