Russian Internet trolls are supposed to have the protest movement of the “yellow West” in France in the visor. However, according to DW-searches the Social Media attacks against President Macron, Europe and democracy.
Russian Internet trolls should have tried the French protest movement of the “yellow vests” to fuel, reported in early December that the American and British media. Also misinformation, such as incorrect images of protests, have been brought into circulation.
As the document referred to in the media, among other things, information of the Initiative “Alliance for Securing Democracy”. The Initiative of the US non-governmental organization German Marshall Fund (GMF) observed Twitter Accounts, to online operate Russian influence.
In these Accounts, the protests by the “yellow vests” (#giletsjaunes) for about a week, the most popular topic. Heart of a Dashboard, on which you can watch in real time the activities of around 600 selected Twitter Accounts, such as Hashtags, topics, and sources.
Russia issues “reinforce”
What kind of account it is, remains a secret. On the website of the project with the name “Hamilton 68″ is the name of it, there were three groups of Twitter Accounts: are those that are openly pro-Russian or ties to the Russian government to maintain; those that are operated by so-called Troll-factories in and outside Russia, and such, behind which people stuck, to strengthen the Russian subjects””. Among the sources, the spread of these Accounts are almost always Russian foreign media like RT and Sputnik news.
France’s President speaks, the “yellow vests” to hear
Normally in these Tweets to US policy, explains Bret Schafer, compared to the DW. The social media expert when GMF makes it clear that the observed Accounts for the English-speaking audience of the tweet and its influence on the protests in France was consequently low. “It is more important to keep certain issues to discredit the West in General and liberal democracy in a negative light,” he says.
Split pushing
Maxim Audinet, Russia expert at the French Institute for International relations (IFRI), confirms this: “Russia’s information activities should not be used as a tool perceived, to mobilize new activists in the ‘yellow vests’ or to incite violence,” says Audinet. “The Russian reporting aims to increase the polarisation of the public debate and to influence the perception of this movement in France and abroad so that the image of a deeply divided country on the verge of civil created war.”
Similarly, the French-based policy expert Tatiana Stanowaja. Russia take advantage of the weakness of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, in order to disseminate “ideas about Europe’s decline, the crisis of democracy and the growing mood against the Establishment”. “I would not say that it has a big impact.”
Macron in sight
“It is not the ‘yellow vests’, but the President of Macron are the primary target of Russian activities in social networks,” says Ben Nimmo, an expert on information security at the US think-tank Atlantic Council. Nimmo has described the end of November a “French Operation” of alleged Russian Internet trolls in a report for the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRL), a project of the Atlantic Council, in detail.
The true goal of the Russian trolls Emmanuel Macron, experts say
Nimmo could together connect with colleagues some of the Details of the locked account again. Most of them were in English, but twelve Instagram Accounts were in French. They had around 76,000 Followers, 12,400 in France, the Facebook. The most progress has been made in mid-2017.
“The French Accounts have done so, as it would be all the possible types of people: one seemed to be a Nationalist, an ultra-Communist. Some did so, as if it were African women,” says Nimmo. Most of the actions had been “harmless”, but five of the twelve Accounts had a common verbal and visual attacks on the French President Macron. There have been photo montages, representing the French President, for example, as a driver of slaves.
Facebook says, who is behind the Accounts. “This attempt could be associated with the “Internet Research Agency” (a company in St. Petersburg, in the Western media, “Russian Troll factory” – approx.d.Red.), but one could not say definitely, as the network.
The manageable number of Accounts expert Ben Nimmo explained by the fact that the possibilities of Russian trolls in French are limited and the “Operation” could only have at the beginning stood. In the USA, Russia started its Online activities around two and a half years before the 2016 presidential election, reminded the expert of the Atlantic Council. You should consider such cases, therefore, in the larger context. “It’s not about ‘yellow vests’, because such operations usually have a long-term goal,” says Nimmo. The aim of Macron.
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