Israeli influence-for-hire company BlackCore appears to have trained members of an Angolan government communications team and helped them run a covert social media campaign, according to research by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.
Citizen Lab examined websites and other online infrastructure linked to BlackCore and obtained what researchers identified as the company’s final report on a training program in Angola. One BlackCore webpage, titled “Angolan Government Campaign,” advertised training in storytelling, copywriting, traffic management and social media operations. It also described plans to launch live campaigns on Meta and TikTok.
The final report said the program began on January 19, 2026, and continued for more than 14 weeks, ending sometime in April. BlackCore described the goal as replacing what it called “amateur production practices” with a “professional, robust, and scalable Architecture for State communications.”
According to the report, participants produced more than 40 pieces of content, while trainers evaluated at least 24 publications. Materials reviewed by Citizen Lab also showed Facebook and Instagram accounts and pages used in the campaign.
One of them was a Facebook page for a purported news outlet called Agita News, which published its own material alongside links to an external website, agitanews.net. Both the page and the website were offline by the time Citizen Lab published its research. A spreadsheet embedded in BlackCore’s report listed posts, the Facebook groups where they were redistributed, and names that researchers assessed were artificial personas used to manage accounts and publish content.
Citizen Lab identified two such Facebook personas with high confidence. Both had been removed from Facebook and both appeared to use AI-generated profile pictures. One posed as an Angolan political activist.
BlackCore’s own materials tracked views and engagement generated by the campaign. Screenshots included in its final report showed some deceptive posts receiving around 20,000 likes. Posts that remained online when Citizen Lab conducted its research were approaching 50,000 likes.
The researchers said they could not independently confirm that the training took place or identify the Angolan participants and BlackCore trainers. But after matching details in the final report with BlackCore websites and social media accounts referenced in the documents, Citizen Lab assessed that it was “highly likely” the program happened as described.
Citizen Lab said it was unable to find a current contact point for BlackCore to seek comment, as the company’s public-facing websites and social media accounts had been removed.
