In the weeks since the gilets jaunes movement took off, Ryan Fox, COO of New Knowledge, a cybersecurity company that tracks Russian-related influence operations on Twitter, has noticed a network of accounts that his organization believes is connected to Russia shift its focus to France. Since October 28, these 340 accounts have created and amplified content about the brutality of the French police, Macron’s inability to lead the nation, and anti-NATO or anti-migrant sentiments more than 20,000 times, according to New Knowledge. Among the claims: Macron’s treatment of the gilets jaunes is worse than Bashar al-Assad’s treatment of Syrian rebels.

Roughly two weeks after they had first mentioned #GiletsJaunes in late October, the network of accounts was responsible for at least 1,600 protest-related mentions per day on Twitter, with daily tallies growing even larger in late November and early December. The allegedly Russian accounts primarily retweeted misinformation about the protests, rather than create it themselves.

Fox says that although there is no way to know for sure who is behind a particular influence network on a social media platform like Twitter, the accounts in question have a history of operating in concert with one another to amplify narratives being pushed by the Kremlin or that are aligned with Russia’s geopolitical goals. According to New Knowledge, the two most popular links shared by the network of accounts were articles published by the the French arm of Russian government-owned news agency Sputnik News. The third-most-popular link promoted by the network came from RT-France, which is also funded by the Russian government.

“The goal is to destabilize—to undermine the ability of these Western countries to successfully govern,” Fox told WIRED, noting similarities between the campaign in France and the Russian influence operations on Facebook and Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election.

French security officials opened a probe into possible Russian interference on social media over the weekend, reports Bloomberg. In a radio interview with RTL, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said an investigation was underway, but offered no specifics on the status or scope. Regardless, disinformation targeting the gilets jaunes continues to spread relatively unchecked for now, as tensions grow in France.

Twitter says it removes tweets linked to any coordinated attempt to deceive.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.wired.com