Current:Home > StocksFrance blames Russia for a digital effort to whip up online controversy over Stars of David graffiti -Streamline Finance
France blames Russia for a digital effort to whip up online controversy over Stars of David graffiti
View
Date:2025-04-13 00:58:50
PARIS (AP) — France says it has been the target of a Russian online destabilization campaign that used bots to whip up controversy and confusion about spray-painted Stars of David that appeared on Paris streets and fed alarm about surging antisemitism in France during the Israel-Hamas war.
The 250 or so quickly erased blue stars are now the subject of French police investigations seeking to determine whether the graffiti were antisemitic, as Paris’ police chief and others initially suspected, and if they were organized from outside France.
The stars’ stenciling on walls in Paris and its suburbs last month quickly fomented debate and alarm on social media and concerns about the safety of France’s Jewish community, the largest in Europe.
Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, triggering their latest and deadliest war, French authorities have counted more than 1,150 antisemitic acts. That’s nearly three times more than all acts against French Jews in 2022, the Interior Ministry says.
In a statement Thursday evening, France’s Foreign Ministry pointed a finger of blame at Russia, saying a Russian network of bots whipped up controversy about the stars with thousands of posts on X, the platform previously known as Twitter.
“This new operation of Russian digital interference against France testifies to the persistence of an opportunistic and irresponsible strategy aimed at exploiting international crises to sow confusion and create tensions in the public debate in France and in Europe,” the statement said.
It said the bots were affiliated with a Russian network — Recent Reliable News, also identified as Doppelgänger.
The Russian activity was detected by Viginum, a French state digital watchdog set up in 2021 after hackers targeted Emmanuel Macron ‘s successful campaign for the French presidency in 2017. The core mission of Viginum is to detect and analyze foreign digital efforts to influence online public debate in France.
Viginum determined that a network of 1,095 bots affiliated with RRN published 2,589 posts on X in under two weeks, “contributing to the controversy surrounding the stenciled Stars of David,” the French Foreign Ministry said.
Viginum also found that the RRN network appeared to have been informed about the graffiti before other posters on X, the ministry said. It said RRN bots first posted about the stars on the evening of Oct. 28 — 48 hours before other photos of the stars started to appear on X.
veryGood! (7949)
Related
- Selena Gomez's "Weird Uncles" Steve Martin and Martin Short React to Her Engagement
- Alabama patient says embryo ruling has derailed a lot of hope as hospital halts IVF treatments
- Government shutdown threat returns as Congress wraps up recess
- College basketball bubble tracker: Several Big East teams hanging in limbo for men's tournament
- Sonya Massey's family keeps eyes on 'full justice' one month after shooting
- Reddit strikes $60M deal allowing Google to train AI models on its posts, unveils IPO plans
- Native American tribes gain new authority to stop unwanted hydopower projects
- Meet the cast of Netflix's 'Avatar The Last Airbender' live action series
- New Zealand official reverses visa refusal for US conservative influencer Candace Owens
- A former funeral home owner has been arrested after a corpse lay in a hearse for 2 years
Ranking
- USA women's basketball live updates at Olympics: Start time vs Nigeria, how to watch
- Johnny Manziel says father secretly tried to negotiate for $3 million from Texas A&M
- Wendy Williams' Medical Diagnosis: Explaining Primary Progressive Aphasia and Frontotemporal Dementia
- Man pleads guilty in 2021 Minnesota graduation party shooting that killed 14-year-old
- Meta donates $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund
- Trump moves to dismiss classified documents case, claiming immunity and unlawful appointment of special counsel
- A judge has dismissed Fargo’s challenge to North Dakota restrictions on local gun control
- Meet the cast of Netflix's 'Avatar The Last Airbender' live action series
Recommendation
US Open player compensation rises to a record $65 million, with singles champs getting $3.6 million
Maryland lawmakers look to extend property tax assessment deadlines after mailing glitch
AT&T outage just a preview of what can happen when cell service goes out: How to prepare
Grey's Anatomy Alum Justin Chambers Gives Rare Glimpse Into Private World With 4 Daughters
Kansas City Chiefs CEO's Daughter Ava Hunt Hospitalized After Falling Down a Mountain
More MLB jersey controversy: Players frustrated with uniform's see-through pants
More than 2 million Americans have aphasia, including Bruce Willis and Wendy Williams
AT&T outage just a preview of what can happen when cell service goes out: How to prepare