This is how Russian, Iranian and Algerian media outlets have exploited the protests in France

Paris. Following the destruction and looting that took place in France on the fringes of the 17 October protest against the cost of living, several politicians have accused social media platforms of facilitating coordination amongst the various rioters and helping to fuel the violence of the protests. Raphaël Glucksmann, leader of Place Publique and Social Democratic candidate for the 2027 presidential election, called on Monday for them to be “held accountable”, because they “create a knock-on effect” amongst the younger generations. Gabriel Attal, former Prime Minister and presidential candidate for the centrist Renaissance party, even called for their “temporary blocking”, “limited to the areas where the unrest is taking place”. On Tuesday, Anne Le Hénanff, Minister of State for Digital Affairs, met with representatives of the main social media platforms to “jointly define the actions to be taken”, but no concrete measures have yet been announced. Meanwhile, however, there is growing confirmation that social media is being used as a weapon of destabilisation, a practice denounced by many observers since the very first days of the student protests.

A study published yesterday by the NGO Alliance4Europe revealed how certain pro-Russian networks had manipulated information to fuel discontent and anger amongst the French public and further the interests of Vladimir Putin’s regime as early as six weeks before the violent demonstrations in October. In total, the NGO analysed 547,471 posts on social media (X, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Telegram) and on various news sites, as well as 12,839 comments under the videos that garnered the most views. It was able to trace these back to pro-Kremlin networks. The most striking example was the wave of bots from the pro-Russian disinformation network Doppelgänger on X. The network published 639 coordinated messages in French, English, Polish and German in the six weeks leading up to 17 October (from 2 September to 14 October, in 22 synchronised waves), with the aim of distorting French public grievances regarding the cost of living in an anti-Ukrainian manner. “Every euro paid to Kyiv is a euro taken away from our prosperity” was the recurring phrase in the bots’ messages.

However, according to the Alliance4Europe report, Moscow is not the only actor interfering in French internal affairs. Iran, with which France is in the midst of a serious diplomatic crisis, is the country that has devoted the most coverage to the protests: fanning the flames of protest by denouncing the police’s ‘violent response’ and ‘widespread human rights violations’. The French-language services of Press TV and IRNA, media outlets controlled by the Iranian regime, devoted between 34 and 37 per cent of their content to the unrest, according to Alliance4Europe’s analysis. In early October, Tehran even summoned the French ambassador to Iran, Pierre Cochard. And three days ago, the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Esmaeil Baghaei, accused French President Emmanuel Macron of “double standards”, stating that history “may bring the fire back to the homes of those who started it”.

Even Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s Algeria, which has been on very poor terms with France since the Boualem Sansal affair, has pointed the finger at Macron in a tone similar to that of the Iranians. From Algiers to Oran, columnists in media outlets close to the Algerian regime have harshly criticised the French government for its handling of the demonstrations, speaking of “a France in disarray and without prospects” (El Watan), which is carrying out “repression that criminalises dissent” (Le Quotidien d’Oran), a country that gives “lessons in freedom to the rest of the world” whilst forgetting to “sweep its own doorstep” (L’Expression).

Yesterday in Doha, Qatar, at the end of his three-day trip to the Persian Gulf, Macron stated that “there was no visible direct foreign interference” in the organisation of the riots in France, but rather a subsequent “foreign manipulation of information that gave rise to comments that were as unacceptable as they were stupid on the part of many, including some foreign leaders”. According to a report yesterday in the Financial Times, citing European officials, Brussels is investigating possible “online interference” and “disinformation campaigns” from non-EU countries that may have helped to stir up protests in France, as well as in Belgium and Italy. Among the countries mentioned are Russia, Iran and Algeria.