Omer Benjakob, an investigating reporter for Haaretz, describes the case he was investigating with undercover reporters Gur Megiddo of TheMarker and Frédéric Métézeau of Radio France. The undercover investigation, with the collaborative efforts of over 30 reporters, helped bring into the lift the never-before-seen industry of Disinformation As A Service provider, or DAAS – a term Benjakob uses referencing the high-tech term SAAS.
The talk also focuses on the technologies of disinformation Team Jorge and other DaaS providers use to try to address the wider question of social media, fake news, and the politics of facts online.
Omer Benjakob is the disinformation and cyber reporter for Haaretz. He was part of the Project Pegasus investigative journalism consortium, focusing on the intersection between technology and politics. He researches and writes about Wikipedia. Benjakob was born in New York and raised in Tel Aviv. He holds a B.A. in political science and philosophy, has completed an M.A. in philosophy of science, and serves as a research fellow at the LPI in Paris.