John Swinney target of Israeli firm BlackCore disinformation campaign

Scotland’s First Minister was targeted by an Israeli firm spreading disinformation online in the run‑up to the Scottish election, it has been claimed.

John Swinney was the subject of a smear campaign by online accounts linked to the company BlackCore, with more than 1,000 posted on X on his account and those of the SNP and the Scottish Government by accounts linked to the firm.

The French Government agency Viginum, which is investigating online disinformation, said that Scotland was targeted between 6 January and 8 May this year.

Mr Swinney has previously been highly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza , telling the Scottish Parliament in September last year: “I said recently that I shared the concerns of other countries and international leaders that a genocide appears to be unfolding in Gaza .

“I did not make that claim lightly.”

He has also called on the UK Government to impose sanctions on Israel over the war.

Mr Swinney has described Israel's actions in Gaza as 'genocide' (Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)

The Scottish disinformation campaign came to light in a report by Viginum, which was investigating election interference in France.

Its report also claimed to have uncovered BlackCore involvement in Scotland, New York, Togo and Angola.

Who hired the company to run its campaigns has not been discovered.

The Viginum report says: “The account of the Scottish First Minister, John Swinney, as well as that of his party, the Scottish National Party (SNP), appear to have been targeted on four occasions between 6 January and 8 May 2026, through the coordinated posting of in English from these inauthentic accounts.”

“As part of this operation, Viginum identified the mobilisation of at least 256 accounts that enabled the dissemination of 1,400 , mainly on posts by @JohnSwinney, @theSNP and @ScotGovFM (respectively 652, 338 and 112 ).”

Viginum launched its investigation after suspicions that three mayoral candidates from the hard-left, pro‑Palestinian La France Insoumise (LFI) party had been targeted in the country’s local elections.

France launched its investition over fears of election interference (Image: Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP)

At a press conference on Thursday alongside French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Viginum chief Marc‑Antoine Brillant said technical work had led them to BlackCore.

Viginum subsequently presented a detailed report on BlackCore’s alleged actions around the world.

“This modus operandi was not limited to municipal elections in France,” he said. “It also appears to have been used to carry out foreign digital interference operations in other countries or regions, such as Angola, Togo, the elections in Scotland, and the 2025 municipal election in New York.”

However, Brillant said it was still unclear who had commissioned BlackCore to meddle in France.

“Our investigations did not make it possible to identify the sponsor or sponsors, if indeed they exist, behind this foreign digital interference,” he said.

Lecornu said the French government had asked Israel for explanations regarding BlackCore’s actions, and for help in trying to find out who may have been behind the smear campaign.

“I do not doubt for a single instant that if a French private group, from French soil moreover, had engaged in foreign digital interference in Israel, they would have done the same to its ambassador on site,” Lecornu said.

Israel’s embassy in Paris said it was waiting to receive details from the French investigation before conducting its own.

“Israel has of course no intention to interfere in the French political process, be it at the national or municipal level,” it said in a statement.

The Scottish Government has been approached for .