Online disinformation has become a highly lucrative 21st-century industry

Disinformation: a 21st-century growth industry

The healthy functioning of democracies depends on the quality of the information that frames debate within them. But digitalisation, the rise of social media and increasingly sophisticated forms of artificial intelligence (AI) are delivering new opportunities to poison the well of public discourse. Unfortunately, as a Guardian investigation illustrates, exploiting these is a 21stcentury growth industry.

Alongside state-sponsored actors, increasing numbers of private firms are profiting from the dissemination of disinformation on behalf of political and corporate clients. Undercover research, in conjunction with 30 other media organisations, has exposed the workings of one such outfit – an Israeli black ops unit combining the use of automated disinformation on social media with hacking and the seeding of fabricated stories in mainstream news outlets. The revelations offer the most detailed insight yet into evolving forms of digital malpractice.

Codenamed Team Jorge, the unit is headed by a former Israeli special forces operative, who denies any wrongdoing. To manipulate online debate, it developed software to create tens of thousands of fake avatars, which were given a convincing digital backstory and operated in multiple countries. In the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office was targeted for online criticism as it sought clarity over the award of government PPE contracts during Covid. Separately, Team Jorge organised a fake “real world” protest in London, the impact of which was then amplified by the fake avatars.

Operatives infiltrated an election campaign in Nigeria and obtained documents. And key players in last year’s Kenyan election had their Gmail and Telegram hacked. The disinformation unit also appears to have targeted mainstream media, planting stories that were taken up by the bots. A Team Jorge member told the undercover investigators it was responsible for a fake story favourable to sanctions-hit Russian oligarchs that was broadcast on France’s most-watched news channel. One of its presenters has been suspended. Contacted by our reporters with evidence of fake accounts, Meta, Facebook’s owner, has taken down bots linked with Team Jorge’s software. But other bad actors are operating undetected.

The professionalisation of a commercial disinformation industry is a clear and present threat. Advances in the fields of AI and virtual reality promise to deliver huge social gains, but also offer scope to blur the lines between the real and the fake.

As technology leaps ahead, systems of regulation and oversight must try to keep pace, and ensure that tech platforms become more accountable for the online environments they create. Disinformation undermines the presumption of good faith necessary for democratic debate and consensus. More attention must be paid to the activities of organisations such as Team Jorge, and more resources must be devoted to putting them out of business