French officials say Israeli and MAGA accounts amplified riot narratives
An internal assessment indicates that social media posts from these groups garnered over 84 million views during the October unrest, far outpacing pro-Russian networks.
By Pedro Tanaka ·
French foreign ministry officials concluded that social media accounts linked to Israel and the United States MAGA movement pushed hostile narratives regarding last month’s riots in France. An internal report seen by Reuters states that these groups connected the domestic unrest to radical Islamism and migration. The assessment found that the ten most-viewed posts on X from Israeli officials, government entities, media outlets, and influencers accumulated more than 35 million views between October 16 and 18. During that same three-day period, the top ten posts from MAGA-linked figures reached over 49 million views. These figures dwarfed the 2.8 million views recorded for the top ten posts from accounts described as part of pro-Russian spheres.
A separate internal European Union assessment identified a covert Russian network named Operation Overload that sought to exploit the same riots. The EU document, which covers the period from October 7 to 21, notes that the network used social media to blame the unrest on uncontrolled immigration. It also portrayed the French government as having lost control. The analysis describes this as opportunistic exploitation of domestic turmoil rather than direct instigation of the protests.
Operation Overload has been active since September 2023. The EU report states the network targets Western public figures, institutions, and media outlets to discredit them and their support for Ukraine. The group spreads videos that impersonate trusted Western media sources. Some of these videos falsely claimed that migrants had raped protesters or that terrorist attacks were imminent. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a Britain-based think tank, described the operation in a report last year as a persistent and high-volume Russian information effort that uses AI to clone expert voices and forges newspaper headlines.
The EU document was prepared by disinformation experts within the bloc’s diplomatic service. It states that such events offer opportunities to undermine national governments and fuel division ahead of elections. The report found no evidence that Moscow or other external actors instigated or escalated the protests. Instead, the activity served to depict French leadership as weak and increasingly authoritarian. Elina Treyger, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, noted that these campaigns wage a slow-burning narrative competition that can shape how Western democracies are viewed.
Rioting broke out in cities across France last month as demonstrations against rising living costs and declining public services turned violent. The unrest marked some of the worst violence the country has witnessed for decades. French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the issue on October 21. He stated that while there was no visible foreign interference behind the protests, there had been foreign manipulation of information. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office and the Israeli Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, rejected similar allegations in August. She said the accusations would not be the last concoction used by authorities to manipulate public opinion. The Russian foreign ministry did not respond to a new request for comment regarding the latest reports. Viginum, the French disinformation watchdog, published a detailed report on Operation Overload in 2024. French officials have indicated that these types of operations tend to resurface during protests, elections, or other opportunities to discredit the nation.
European disinformation specialists analyzed the combined assessments to understand how external actors used France’s domestic turmoil. The reports detail the volume of views and the specific themes promoted by different groups. The data shows a distinct divergence in reach between the pro-Israel and MAGA-linked accounts and the pro-Russian network. The EU and French reports remain the primary sources for these findings, as independent verification of the specific view counts was not possible for the reporting agency.
