Russian network, Israeli and MAGA-linked accounts amplified anti-immigration narratives during French unrest - report
Internal EU and French assessments reported by Reuters detail efforts to exploit the riots, but found no evidence that foreign actors sparked the protests
A Russian influence network, Israeli accounts and figures associated with the US MAGA movement used unrest in France to amplify anti-immigration narratives, according to internal European Union and French Foreign Ministry assessments reported by Reuters on Monday.
The assessments describe how these actors seized on last month’s violence to inflame hostility toward immigrants and portray the French government as having lost control. They do not establish that the actors coordinated their activities or instigated the unrest.
The protests, which erupted amid rising living costs and deteriorating public services, provided an opening for campaigns seeking to exploit domestic divisions in France.
Israeli and MAGA-linked posts drew tens of millions of views
The French Foreign Ministry assessment found that accounts belonging to Israeli officials, media outlets and influencers, along with figures associated with the American right, amplified messages linking the riots to uncontrolled immigration and “radical Islam.”
Their posts attracted substantially more views than those shared by pro-Russian accounts. Between October 16 and 18, the ten most-viewed posts on X by MAGA-affiliated figures received more than 49 million views. The ten leading posts from Israeli accounts received more than 35 million views, compared with about 2.8 million for the ten most-viewed posts from pro-Russian figures.
Russian network used fabricated reports and AI-generated content
A separate assessment by the EU’s foreign service examined a Russian influence network known as “Operation Overload,” which has been active since September 2023.
According to the assessment, the network seeks to discredit Western institutions, weaken support for Ukraine and portray French President Emmanuel Macron as weak and authoritarian.
The network circulated fabricated videos designed to resemble reports from established Western news outlets. It also used artificial intelligence to clone experts’ voices and manipulate images. Its false claims included allegations that immigrants had raped protesters and warnings of imminent terrorist attacks in France.
The EU assessment found no evidence that foreign actors had triggered the protests, describing their activities as an “opportunistic exploitation of civil unrest.”
A RAND researcher characterized such campaigns as part of an ongoing struggle to shape public narratives, inflame hostility toward migrants and push European voters toward political extremes.
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Macron similarly distinguished between the origins of the protests and attempts to exploit them, saying that while foreign interference had not been identified behind the unrest itself, there had been “foreign manipulation of information.”
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Ministry did not comment on the Reuters report. Moscow has previously denied similar allegations, dismissing them as fabrications intended to mislead the public.