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Paris 2024 Olympics: a campaign to manipulate information attributed to Azerbaijan
Inauthentic accounts, fake media, publications amplified in a coordinated way: France has been the victim of a smear campaign aimed at casting doubt on its ability to organize the Olympic Games. In a report that we have been able to consult, Viginum, the body that fights against foreign interference, retraces what led its investigators on the trail of Azerbaijani personalities.
These visuals are used to artificially feed the #BoycottParis2024. © Screenshots/ RFI Editing
By: Sophie Malibeaux
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It all started on July 26, 2023 with the massive publication on social networks of visuals calling for a boycott of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Then a video circulated in the form of a dubious montage combining images of last spring's riots and pictures of the city of Paris, alongside the acronym of the Olympics. In just a few days, it has accumulated more than 7 million views and thousands of shares. The account that managed to make it go viral is called New York lnsider and presents itself as an American media outlet. The site to which the X @NewYorklnsider account refers (with an L instead of the I) has only existed since June 2023 and shares articles copied and pasted in recognized media such as the New York Times in particular. Dubious elements that attract the attention of journalists and members of Viginum. "Between July 26 and 27, more than 1,600 publications accompanied by these visuals or the hashtags BoycottParis2024 were published on platform X," according to the Viginum report.
Examples of visuals used to feed the #BoycottParis2024 into a vast information manipulation. © Screenshots/ RFI Editing
The digital interference detection body is quickly alerted by the amplification of the phenomenon, with the help of dozens of accounts that have all the characteristics of inauthentic accounts. According to the report, research shows that a significant proportion of these X accounts have at least one link to Azerbaijan: a declared location in that country, the presence of Azeri characters in the publications, as well as an editorial line "promoting videos or excerpts from speeches by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev."
X accounts that carry the #BoycottParis2024 and have characteristics of inauthenticity. © Screenshots/ RFI Editing
The investigations carried out by Viginum make it possible to identify the account behind the distribution of the video montage. Created in June 2023, just before the start of this influence operation, the account in question (still active at the time of writing) coincides with the identity of an Azerbaijani politician at the head of a local branch of the presidential party.
Examples of X account sharing this video montage attributed by Viginum to Azerbaijan. © Screenshots/ RFI Editing
The subject is sufficiently substantiated for French diplomacy to decide to "ask the Azerbaijani authorities for clarification", diplomatic sources said. Although it has not been possible to establish a direct link between this reputational attack and the authorities of this former Soviet republic in Central Asia, a body of consistent evidence points to the involvement of personalities close to the Azerbaijani government. And this, at a time of high tensions with Azerbaijan, following France's support for Armenia, fearing a violation of its territorial integrity by Azerbaijani forces.
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