00:03You're watching Euronews' 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,
00:32the former prime minister of France who's running to succeed current president Emmanuel Macron.
00:37Attal filed a criminal complaint with French authorities
00:40alleging foreign interference originating from Russian networks,
00:44after a swathe of deepfakes and false news reports targeted him on social media.
00:50For example, fake videos bearing the logos and visual identity
00:53of well-known French news outlets Le Figaro and Libération circulated online,
00:59attempting to smear Attal by linking him to political scandals.
01:03News agency AFP, which reports having seen Attal's complaint,
01:07said that the former PM's lawyer said the fake content
01:09is likely to undermine the integrity of the upcoming election.
01:13After this, researchers noted the campaign moved to target Édouard Philippe,
01:17another former prime minister and a contender in the presidential election.
01:21Posts against him follow a similar pattern to those against Attal,
01:25mimicking respected media outlets such as Le Monde and AFP
01:29to mix real-life circumstances with distorted claims.
01:34For example, one of the claims here falsely claims
01:36a politician admitted Philippe orchestrated corruption
01:39in an investigation involving LH French Tech.
01:43Philippe is currently under investigation for financial wrongdoing,
01:47but there's no evidence that Stéphanie de Bazelaire,
01:50who's also under investigation, made these claims,
01:53despite what the post suggests.
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