Thread by @alexzfinley

Fascinating investigation into influence mercenaries for hire. There are lots of stories from partner pubs, but the bottom line is: Team Jorge peddles disinfo and influence ops for money and has had its fingers in dozens of elections, but also other viral campaigns. A thread. 1/

https://twitter.com/FbdnStories/status/1625752711311269888

First, I recommend this video from @guardian with @manisha_bot for a brief overview. 2/
theguardian.com/world/video/20…

A team of undercover journalists met with Team Jorge, and "Jorge" boasted about the company's capabilities, even providing examples of their successes, noting, for example, their involvement in dozens of elections. 3/

While my first reaction was: wow, this is really bad, my second reaction was: wow, these former Israeli special forces dudes have shitty op sec if undercover journalists posing as potential clients got through. 4/

Anyway, strap in here for a #YachtWatch tidbit: one of the videos Jorge showed the undercover journalists, in an effort to sell Jorge's services to them, involved a "news" package that appeared on BFMTV, a big news channel in France. 5/

In fact, I was interviewed by BFMTV last year about sanctions on Russian oligarch yachts. We took a little field trip (water trip?) and they subtitled me even though I spoke French😂 6/

https://twitter.com/BFMTV/status/1511056185729990664?s=20

Well, months later, a clip ran on BFMTV, in which the anchor implies sanctions on Russian yachts are hurting the yachting industry and will kill tens of thousands of jobs along the Côte d'Azur (here's our #YachtWatch nexus) 7/

Only problem is: the script was written by Jorge and his team (also, there are not tens of thousands of yachting jobs at stake, so the substance is off too). I didn't include the actual video bc it is embedded in a tweet from an account that is likely Jorge's. 8/

Another BFMTV clip seems to attempt to smear @eSysman by claiming he spread "fake news" about oligarch yachts and that, in the past, he worked on a yacht owned by Teodoro Obiang the Younger, the son of the dictator of Equatorial Guinea. 9/

Here's that yacht, btw: ICE (which was called AIR when it was delivered in 2005 to its first owner, Suleiman Kerimov, who is also no longer owner of AMADEA, seized by the US government in Fiji last year. Yachts circulate among shitty people, what can I say.) 10/

I have no idea if @eSysman ever worked on ICE. But I will say this: if you've ever worked on a super yacht, there's a 99% chance you worked for an asshole, so not sure we can pigeonhole him on this. 11/

Anyway, back to the Team Jorge investigation. In an interview, one of the journalists who went undercover and met Jorge is asked who might have paid to get those two oligarch yacht-related video packages onto BFMTV. He has a guess: lemonde.fr/podcasts/artic…
12/

Imperial Yachts, which manages some of the most interesting Russian yachts out there, including SCHEHERAZADE, believed to be Putin's yacht. Here's a good backgrounder, from @PekingMike @julianbarnes @gaia_pianigiani from last summer 13/
nytimes.com/2022/06/01/wor…

The day after that @nytimes story, Imperial Yachts was sanctioned by the DOJ. [sad trombone gif]

Was Imperial Yachts behind the BFMTV videos? I don't know. I hope someone finds out though (and tells me! hint hint). 14/

https://twitter.com/alexzfinley/status/1532374820943454208?s=20

One last thing I want to mention on the Team Jorge investigation: it's really fucking frightening. Bad actors all too willing to corrupt the public discourse with lies that come from sources entrusted with power for the good of society. 15/

Even more frightening is the availability to private actors. This was once the provenance of governments but is now available for purchase, but only by rich people. As The Guardian reported, Jorge charges between 300k and 600k a month for his services (on the low end!). 16/

And look at this: emails reveal Team Jorge met with people at Davos. You know who goes to Davos? People just like you and me* 17/

*people who go to Davos are not at all like you and me. Like, at. all.

So, we can all look forward to a future where rich people determine facts, skewed to their own advantage, while the rest of us drown in a sea of manipulation. 18/

Anyway, I dig into all this and more in my Foreign Influence Operations course (which I know realize I should have just called Influence Operations bc hell, it's happening right at home, too!). -fin-
alexzfinley.substack.com/s/the-course