Hezbollah forming new ‘cyber army’ across the Middle East: Telegraph

According to the report published by the British newspaper, Hezbollah has conducted training sessions for some individuals since 2012, during which they learned how to digitally manage photos, manage large numbers of fake social media accounts, create videos, and avoid censorship on Facebook content.

The operatives are allegedly training in several countries, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Syria.

According to the newspaper, which quoted a person named Mohammad (a nom de guerre), the latter was alerted to the need not to talk about his trip to Beirut, where he noted that the operatives underwent a ten-day course fully monitored by cameras.

Since the end of his training in 2015, Mohammad (from Iraq) sent scores of people to Beirut to receive training, and helped create new teams of social media professionals, the newspaper said.

The newspaper quoted a person who performed the courses and is currently working with an Iraqi political party, who requested that his name be withheld, as he indicated that these people were trained to create fake accounts on social media, and that “the people we sent developed their skills in Beirut and when they came back they started training activists inside Iraq.”

Hezbollah has not responded to these claims by The Telegraph; however, it should be noted that the group does not permit its members to share intel or give statements to the media.