This modus operandi was nicknamed the “Matriochka” or “Russian dolls” operation by the “Antibot4Navalny” collective which tracks influence operations linked to Russia on X.
An Internet user, "Käthe", for example, commented on Eiffel. "I see this kind of information every day. The official media don't talk about it, what should I believe?" she asks.
In a few hours, this profile appeals in the same way to dozens of French media such as Le Progrès, Paris Match, Mediapart, Le Point, Franceinfo, Le Figaro, RFI, Le Parisien... The account then remains inactive until December 20 : he then broadcasts a graffiti of Zelensky caricatured as a homeless person in Los Angeles, a visual that another account will in turn ask the media to verify, and so on.
The data provided by "Antibot4Navalny" and which the AFP investigated makes it possible to document the existence of dozens or even hundreds of profiles using this strategy of mass media arrest. Most of these are accounts left abandoned by their owner and then hacked. A sign that these accounts have been taken over by “bots”, the publications sometimes follow one another at the rate of one per minute, the better to flood the networks.
AFP's analysis also revealed that accounts which ask the media to verify false information will themselves broadcast it some time later.
Thefts in the catacombs of Paris by a Ukrainian, embezzlement of military aid to Ukraine, truncated or invented Zelensky graffiti and false advertisements in Times Square: these publications always implicate Ukrainians and seek to fuel the idea of a weariness of Europeans and Americans with regard to kyiv.
Most of these visuals were shared for the first time by Russian Internet users, notably on the social network Telegram and on news blogs, as AFP research shows.
This campaign seems to come in the wake of another, called "Doppelganger" which in recent months consisted of broadcasting anti-Ukraine fake news via visuals impersonating Western media, a campaign clearly attributed to Russia by the services of French intelligence, note the experts interviewed by AFP.
“Diversionary business”
David Chavalarias, mathematician in social sciences and research director at the CNRS, sees this campaign as a “diversionary enterprise aimed at fact-checkers” in order to “keep them busy on crude subjects, difficult to verify”. For the researcher, this operation can also aim to give visibility to these fake news by using them as relays, without their knowledge.
“The objective seems to be to capture the attention of fact-checkers to circumvent their work and have tactical and longer-term effects on points in the story about this ongoing conflict” by testing the virality of certain content, adds Julien Nocetti, adding that "the Russians are learning." “And there’s a kind of agility in testing different methods.”
Speaking to AFP, a French security source confided that he was "not surprised" by this new operation since "the Russians are looking to have visibility, they want people to talk about them good or bad."
“Battle of stories”
The anti-Ukrainian visuals used as part of “Matryoshka” were also promoted on various social networks by the same bots that were part of the Doppelgänger campaign.
In December 2023, a report from Insikt Group, an entity of the intelligence company Recorded Future, indicated that the Doppelgänger campaign was still very active on social networks with at least 800 bots dedicated to promoting false articles impersonating Ukrainian media.
Moreover, according to the German press on Friday, Germany identified a vast "pro-Russian disinformation campaign" using thousands of fake X accounts (ex-Twitter) publishing messages harmful to Ukraine, using visuals from German media.
“Ukraine remains the country most often targeted by information manipulation - and this is not by chance,” Josep Borrell, head of European diplomacy, declared Tuesday during a press conference on disinformation and foreign interference, evoking a “battle of narratives”.
“Security is no longer just a question of weapons, it is a question of information,” he concluded.
AFP
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