Key facts
- The EU assessment found no evidence Moscow or other actors instigated or escalated the protests, calling it opportunistic exploitation of unrest.
- The EU document said Russia sought to depict the French leadership as weak and increasingly authoritarian.
- Operation Overload, active since September 2023, targets public figures, institutions and media outlets to discredit them and their support for Ukraine, the EU report said.
- France's foreign ministry assessment found accounts linked to Israel and the US MAGA movement also pushed hostile narratives around the riots.
- The Russian foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment; Netanyahu's office and Israel's foreign ministry did not respond.
- Reuters said it could not independently verify assertions in either the French or the EU report.
A covert Russian network sought to exploit riots in France in October by using social media to blame the unrest on uncontrolled immigration and portray the government as having lost control, according to an internal EU assessment seen by Reuters.
The EU analysis, prepared by disinformation experts in the bloc's diplomatic service and covering October 7 to 21, found that a network known as Operation Overload spread videos impersonating Western media outlets to target French audiences. Some falsely claimed migrants had raped protesters or that terrorist attacks were imminent. The document said Russia sought to depict the French leadership as weak and increasingly authoritarian, and that such events offer opportunities to undermine national governments and shape perceptions ahead of elections.
The assessment found no evidence that Moscow or other actors had instigated or escalated the protests, describing the activity as the opportunistic exploitation of unrest.
A separate internal assessment compiled by France's foreign ministry, also seen by Reuters, found that social media accounts linked to Israel and to the US MAGA movement pushed hostile narratives around the riots, linking them to radical Islamism and migration. It found the 10 most-viewed X posts on the unrest from pro-Russian spheres got 2.8 million views from October 16 to 18. The 10 most-viewed posts from MAGA-linked officials, media outlets and influencers got more than 49 million views in the same period, and the 10 most-viewed from Israeli officials, government accounts, media outlets and influencers got more than 35 million.