00:03You're watching Euronews's fact-checking show, The Cube.
00:07France's crucial presidential election is set for the spring of 2027
00:12and it already appears to be a prime target for misinformation and foreign interference.
00:18Researchers from the bot-tracking network Antibot for Navalny
00:21have detected a campaign linked to Matryoshka,
00:24a covert influence and disinformation operation aligned with Russia.
00:28At first, these posts focused on Gabriel Attal, the former prime minister of France
00:33who's running to succeed current president Emmanuel Macron.
00:37Attal filed a criminal complaint with French authorities alleging foreign interference
00:42originating from Russian networks, after a swathe of deepfakes and false news reports
00:47targeted him on social media.
00:49For example, fake videos bearing the logos and visual identity of well-known French news outlets
00:55from Le Figaro and Liberacion circulated online, attempting to smear Attal by linking him to
01:01political scandals.
01:03News agency AFP, which reports having seen Attal's complaint, said that the former PM's
01:08lawyers said the fake content is likely to undermine the integrity of the upcoming election.
01:13After this, researchers noted the campaign moved to target Édouard Philippe, another former
01:18prime minister and a contender in the presidential election.
01:22Posts against him follow a similar pattern to those against Attal, mimicking respected media
01:27outlets such as Le Monde and AFP to mix real-life circumstances with distorted claims.
01:33For example, one of the claims here falsely claims a politician admitted Philippe orchestrated
01:39corruption in an investigation involving LH French Tech.
01:43Philippe is currently under investigation for financial wrongdoing, but there's no evidence
01:48that Stéphanie de Bazelaire, who's also under investigation, made these claims, despite
01:53what the post suggests.
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