Accounts linked to Russia, MAGA, and Israel tried to exploit the riots in France to discredit the French authorities, EU says

Social media accounts linked to Russia tried to exploit protests and riots in France to discredit French authorities and blame the unrest on uncontrolled immigration, Reuters reported, citing an assessment by European disinformation specialists.

The European Union assessment found that the Russian bot network Matryoshka (also known as “Operation Overload”) posed as Western media outlets to spread videos claiming that terrorist attacks were being planned in France and that migrants had raped protesters. The specialists found that Russian accounts had tried to portray the French leadership as “weak and increasingly authoritarian.”

EU experts found no evidence, however, that Moscow or anyone else had instigated or escalated the protests. According to a French Foreign Ministry estimate, the 10 most-viewed posts on X from pro-Russian accounts garnered 2.8 million views from October 16 to 18 alone.

Reuters reported that those figures were dwarfed by the views for posts about the riots on X from accounts linked to the MAGA movement and from Israeli officials and bloggers. The French Foreign Ministry said these accounts had also spread “hostile narratives” about the riots, linking them to radical Islamism and migration.

The 10 most-viewed posts about the riots in France by MAGA-linked officials, media outlets, and bloggers received more than 49 million views over three days. Similar posts by Israeli officials, government agencies, and bloggers received a total of 35 million views.

Large-scale street protests have been taking place in France since late September. Schoolchildren and students began demonstrating against education cuts and the rising cost of living, and other residents joined them. The protests have often been accompanied by riots and clashes with police.