Key facts
- A video showing alleged Hezbollah militants threatening attacks in France ahead of Bastille Day has been deemed fake.
- Researchers suspect the video is linked to Storm-1516, a known Russian disinformation campaign.
- The video spread across Telegram, X, and Facebook, reaching approximately one million views.
- Clues suggesting the video's inauthenticity include the lack of Hezbollah's official logo and linguistic inconsistencies.
- The video's dissemination network included accounts with pro-Russian and anti-Western leanings.
A social media video that emerged prior to France's Bastille Day on July 14, featuring individuals resembling Hezbollah militants threatening attacks, has been identified as fake and potentially linked to a Russian disinformation campaign. Researchers analyzing the content noted several inconsistencies that suggest it does not originate from the Lebanese militant group.
The video, which gained significant traction on platforms like Telegram, X, and Facebook, showed three hooded men in military uniforms posing with a dummy of a French Foreign Legion soldier. They issued threats of violence if France continued to supply weapons to Israel. However, the clip lacked Hezbollah's official logo, and linguistic analysis by Euronews Arabic indicated the Arabic spoken was not Lebanese and contained grammatical errors.
Fact-checkers from AFP observed that the video circulated through accounts known for promoting pro-Russian narratives and anti-Western sentiments, some of which are associated with the Alliance of Sahel States. These accounts also frequently share conspiracy theories and anti-Israel content.
The operation behind this fabricated video is believed to be Storm-1516, a Russian influence campaign that has previously produced fake content targeting Ukraine and Western nations. Similar tactics have been observed in other incidents, including a January 2025 video falsely attributed to HTS and another video purporting to be from Hamas, which Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center also linked to Storm-1516's methods.