Large-scale disinformation campaign about Russia’s war in Ukraine exposed in France
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France’s Foreign Affairs Ministry announced the discovery of a large-scale scheme to spread disinformation about Russia’s war against Ukraine, reports CNN.
Fake internet pages impersonating media and government sites, as well as hundreds of fake URLs on social networks are spreading Russian war propaganda, says a report by France’s Service for Surveillance and Protection Against Foreign Digital Interference (VIGINUM).
There were 355 active web domains publishing pro-Russian content or masquerading as publications from Europe, the USA, and the Middle East, from June 2022 to May 2023.
In France, 58 fake articles were discovered in four media, including the influential newspapers Le Monde and Figaro. In one case, a site resembling the French Foreign Ministry wrote about a fake “security tax” to help Ukraine.
French authorities discovered more than 160 Facebook pages that had published over 600 links to fake websites and articles.
VIGINUM named Several Russian nationals responsible for developing the fake URLs in the campaign, noting that the campaign is still active, despite the exposure and measures taken by Meta (Facebook) and Twitter.
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