More on disinformation – Gur Megiddo and Omer Benjakob in Haaretz:

‘In August 2020, the International Committee of the Red Cross found itself at the center of a global media storm. The French news website Valeurs Actuelles was claiming that the organization had become a “sponsor” of Islamist terrorist organizations that controlled portions of Burkina Faso, West Africa.
The story was based on a gross misrepresentation of genuine information about contacts between the aid organization and the terrorist organizations, and drew attention on social media. It fanned the flames on Burkina Faso websites and was even covered by the Agence France-Presse news agency and other news outlets in France.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) management – who had already been concerned about the challenge of protecting their staff in the war-torn country – could never have imagined that this media storm had been created by a group of Israelis working from an air-conditioned office in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan.’

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‘Psy Group, its founder Joel Zamel and CEO Burstien were investigated by the U.S. bureau on suspicion of offering their services to Donald Trump’s campaign headquarters on his first run for the presidency in 2016. The suspicion was that a foreign player, and not Trump, had offered to pay for the services. The investigation did not result in indictments, but did lead to the demise of Psy Group – which had been facing financial difficulties even before the investigation.’

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‘The details reported here were uncovered as part of the Story Killers project initiated by Forbidden Stories, an NGO dedicated to following up on the work of other journalists facing threats, prison or murder. Most of the details were obtained through an undercover investigation making use of false identities, and was led by TheMarker, Radio France and Haaretz.
As part of the investigation, Percepto representatives were approached by individuals presenting themselves as strategic advisers who were purportedly seeking to use the company’s services to fight one of its client’s business competitors in West Africa. In reality, Percepto employees were speaking to undercover reporters who recorded a series of calls and presentations.
The content of the calls was later investigated by a press consortium that included European publications The Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and Die Zeit, as well as the investigative journalist group OCCRP.’

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‘Burstien, the company CEO who coordinated Percepto’s presentations, revealed his company’s arsenal to us. It included creating defamatory articles; the use of the services of an antisemitic social media influencer whom the U.S. State Department has identified as a long arm of the Kremlin; the establishment of fake nonprofit organizations; and a “news agency” that was actually a covert propaganda tool.
To top it off, it boasted of having an investigative journalist in Paris who was actually an avatar run by company staffers in Ramat Gan.
In one of Burstien’s presentations, the Percepto CEO showed a screenshot of a report linking the ICRC to terrorist organizations in the Sahel region. The photo was pixilated to keep the details confidential, but it was not blurred that well.
“Our client had a real problem with a specific NGO that really was not really objective,” Burstien explained in English. “So the question is, how do you get this NGO out of the ball game? … First thing is [to] obtain intelligence. … We obtained really good intelligence. We understood that if we published this information in [the] local media, it [wouldn’t] resonate. We worked with tier-one French media. … The process took over a month for them to validate the information.
“Immediately after they published it … we took it and published it within our assets,” Burstien said, using a phrase he repeated several times during our conversations to describe the avatar network and outlets controlled by Percepto that were purportedly news websites.’

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‘Following Chorev on social media in recent months might form the impression that he is a passionate fighter on behalf of democracy and liberal values, and against all forms of corruption. Similarly, anyone viewing his frequent appearances on Israeli television in this time is liable to draw the same conclusions.
“We’ll fight so that ... our democratic and liberal country not turn into a branch of the Council of Torah Sages, of serial dodgers of military service and statesmanship,” he wrote on a Facebook post in January, which he described as “soul-searching” on the occasion of his 51st birthday.
This media adviser and apparent advocate for liberalism has worked with senior Israeli politicians over the years, including two prime ministers (Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak) as well as then-Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon. Until 2017, he was also the media adviser to then-Israel Police chief Roni Alsheich, via another firm where Chorev is chairman, Goldfinger Communications.
It is hard to explain the disparity between the values Chorev has espoused and his company’s work. Percepto, as we have learned from presentations led by his partner (Chorev did not participate in the presentations), is not averse to availing itself of the services of one of the leading antisemitic propagandists of our time.
If you were to stop French Jews on the street and ask them to list five well-known antisemites, it is fair to assume that one of them would be Kémi Séba. The son of immigrants from Benin and born in the French city of Strasbourg, Séba is the founder of Tribu KA – a movement that has been outlawed in France for the racist Black supremacist ideology it espouses and the antisemitic slogans heard at its rallies.
In 2009, he was convicted of incitement to violence and racism, following which he settled in Senegal – where he reinvented himself as a hatemonger on social media. An online influencer, he is a declared adversary of Western culture, of the United States and of any French presence whatsoever in Africa. He is also an ardent supporter of Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah, having previously stated that “we need more Hamas and Hezbollah here.” He has also cultivated ties with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was president of Iran between 2005 and 2013.

Séba is a red flag, and not just for Jews. Last November, the U.S. State Department released a report indicating his ties to the Wagner Group – the business group owned by oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Wagner Group provides the Kremlin with an army of mercenaries, as well as producing propaganda and disinformation to serve Putin. Séba was even invited to conferences organized by “Putin’s philosopher,” Alexander Dugin.
The State Department indicated that Séba has also been a prominent voice in support of Putin’s propaganda effort to justify last year’s invasion of Ukraine.
Despite all this, when a potential client told Burstien of his interest in harming the reputation of a business rival – a retail chain competing for market share in French-speaking Africa – one of Burstien’s initial suggestions was to hire Séba’s services.
“What you’ve just mentioned, this specific narrative regarding the opponent company paying very low wages,” said Burstien in one presentation. This “fairly falls under the broad narrative of French colonialism. … One of the main anti-French colonialists – what’s his name? Kémi Séba? – OK … we can unattributedly link with Kémi Séba and ask him to be part of our entire campaign.” Burstien suggested that one of the company’s employees, Lea Abramsky – who has both Israeli and French citizenship – contact Séba to arrange the matter. Abramsky was one of three Israeli-French dual nationals present at the presentations.
The others were Georgina Benaim, who previously served as the Israel Defense Forces’ representative to the French-language media in the spokesman’s unit, and Nina Cohen. She said she interned at the Israeli delegation to the United Nations and worked at the i24News television station, which is owned by French billionaire Patrick Drahi.
When he made the suggestion to hire Séba, Burstien was actually speaking to French reporter Frédéric Métézeau.
“Kémi Séba is very antisemitic,” the undercover journalist told Burstien, adding that “he’s like Louis Farrakhan” – referring to the antisemitic leader of the U.S.-based Nation of Islam.
“I wish someone would pay me to do a campaign against Kémi Séba, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Burstien replied. “This has nothing to do with Jews or Israel. This is a commercial environment and I recommend utilizing whatever narratives are relevant for our client,” he explained.’

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‘In a series of presentations, Burstien said that “real” reporters were employed at the news agency – and it is doubtful they knew the aims they were serving in their work.
This is how Burstien described it during one presentation: “The main problem in [Burkina Faso] was that all the controlled media was biased and the client said, ‘I need a so-called objective platform where I can push information that attacks the opposition and supports me.’ “We created an online press agency, news agency … that within six months was one of the top five news agencies in the country. The news agency operated, handled, real reporters. … They were working for an avatar. … We operated, I think, 15 to 17 journalists and the platform was super, super influential.”’

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‘“Just to make it clear,” Chorev interjected, “we never attack a particular organization as a target” – completely contradicting recorded remarks made by Burstien in the series of presentations. “If we had a project of battling Islamic Jihad in Sahel … if we had any information about a particular organization, the organization is not the target.” Tellier: Did you ever meet a woman named Anita Pettit? Chorev: “I didn’t.” Burstien: “Because you are asking about particular projects, we’re not commenting on it.” Tellier: We have information that investigative journalist Anita Pettit is in fact an avatar created by Percepto, and that you used it to publish negative information about an adversary of your client.
Chorev: “I never met her. I don’t know.” When asked about the fake news agency Burkinews, Chorev replied: “We will not comment on any specific question about clients.” Tellier: Mr. Burstien, I have information according to which you were arrested by the authorities in Burkina Faso.
“In the United States they say, ‘I’ll take the fifth,’” Burstien responded, referring to a suspect’s right to silence. Responding to this story, Percepto said Burstien “was not incarcerated during a coup in Burkina Faso.” Despite the squirming of Chorev and Burstien, and the unease they projected in the face of direct questioning, the most interesting part of the interview was actually at the start. During the warmup questions, Chorev had an opportunity to present the company’s services in his own words. In contrast to the picture that emerged from the series of presentations, he said Percepto also focuses on “identifying, monitoring and fighting against ‘influence’ campaigns.” In other words, torpedoing campaigns of the sort that the company itself conducts, which include deceptive elements such as avatars and bots.’ Read the article here.

An avatar slash investigative journalist named Anita Pettit.
The author’s competitor is not AI, but ‘sophisticated mass-deception systems.’

And the best part is that the company that is providing these services is fighting against itself.

Rogue capitalism? Become your own competitor.
Usually you have antitrust laws, but when the investigative journalist is an avatar, the news agency is operated by the company that deals in mass deception the law easily becomes toothless.

Dystopian? Well, the series of articles provide us with some hope.

The avatar has been revealed, after all.