EU report: covert Russian network weaponized France's riots over immigration

A restricted EU assessment covering October 7 to 21 names the culprit: "Operation Overload," a covert Russian network that seeded videos impersonating Western media outlets for French audiences. Some of the fakes claimed migrants had raped protesters, others warned of imminent terrorist attacks. The goal, per the document, was to paint France's leadership as "weak and increasingly authoritarian."

The same analysis found no sign Moscow or anyone else started or escalated the unrest, calling it "the opportunistic exploitation of unrest." Operation Overload has been running since September 2023, targeting Western public figures, institutions and media to discredit them and their support for Ukraine, according to the report. Russia's foreign ministry didn't respond to a Reuters request for comment. In August, ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed a French state watchdog's disinformation claims about France's 2027 elections as "not be the last concoction which the authorities will use to manipulate public opinion."

A separate French foreign ministry assessment, also seen by Reuters, found the reach went well beyond Russia. The 10 most-viewed X posts on the riots from pro-Russian spheres pulled 2.8 million views from October 16 to 18. MAGA-linked officials, outlets and influencers racked up more than 49 million views on their top 10 posts in that window, while Israeli officials, government accounts, media and influencers hit more than 35 million. Those accounts pushed "hostile narratives" tying the unrest to radical Islamism and migration, the ministry found.

Asked about foreign interference, French officials pointed Reuters to President Emmanuel Macron, who said on October 21 that nothing visible pointed to outside meddling in the protests — but that there was "foreign manipulation of information." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office and Israel's foreign ministry didn't respond to comment requests. Reuters said it couldn't independently verify the assertions in either report.

The rioting broke out across French cities last month as demonstrations over rising living costs and shrinking public services boiled over into some of the country's worst violence in decades. Elina Treyger, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, described these campaigns as a slow-burning "narrative competition" that shapes how Western democracies are viewed, feeding an anti-immigrant backlash that pushes European voters toward the political extremes. Britain's Institute for Strategic Dialogue called Overload "a persistent and high-volume Russian information operation" that clones experts' voices with AI, forges headlines and jumps from crisis to crisis. France's disinformation watchdog Viginum detailed Overload and similar operations in 2024, and French officials say they resurface around protests and elections.