EU Finds Russian Covert Network Exploited French Riots
Confidential assessments reveal Operation Overload circulated fake videos to blame immigration, while MAGA and Israeli accounts generated tens of millions of views.
By Harper Foster ·
European Union and French officials concluded that a covert Russian network manipulated social media to undermine the French government during the October riots. The finding comes from confidential assessments reviewed by Reuters, which detail how foreign actors targeted domestic unrest for political gain.
The EU's diplomatic service identified a Russian operation named Operation Overload. Between 7 and 21 October, the network circulated videos disguised as reports from Western media outlets. The content aimed to depict French leadership as weak and increasingly authoritarian.
The disinformation campaign sought to attribute the crisis to uncontrolled immigration. Some of the shared videos falsely claimed that migrants had raped protesters or that terrorist attacks were imminent. The restricted EU document stated that such events offer opportunities to fuel fear and division ahead of elections.
A separate internal analysis by the French Foreign Ministry found that actors from Israel and the United States also spread hostile narratives. These accounts linked the riots to radical Islamism and migration. The ministry noted that these foreign efforts were opportunistic rather than instigating the protests themselves.
Viewership data from the social media platform X illustrates the scale of the foreign engagement. The ten most viewed posts from pro Russian spheres attracted 2.8 million views between 16 and 18 October. This figure was far lower than the engagement generated by other foreign groups.
Posts from accounts linked to the MAGA movement received more than 49 million views during the same three day period. The ten most viewed posts by Israeli officials, government accounts, and influencers attracted more than 35 million views. The French ministry's report indicated that these figures dwarfed the reach of the Russian campaign.
The background for the online activity was the largest protests in France on 17 October. Violence and looting were reported across the country. In Limoges, protesters set fire to the town hall, destroying the building. More than 2,000 people were arrested nationwide in connection with the mass protests.
