France Accuses Russia of Online Campaign to Amplify Graffiti Controversy

French Digital Watchdog Identifies Russian Network Behind Thousands of Posts on Graffiti Controversy

France has accused Russia of using a network of bots to amplify controversy and confusion about spray-painted Stars of David that appeared on Paris streets, feeding alarm about surging antisemitism in France during the Israel-Hamas war.
The French Foreign Ministry identified the Russian network as Recent Reliable News, also known as Doppelgänger, which published 2,589 posts on the social media platform X in under two weeks, contributing to the controversy surrounding the graffiti.
The French digital watchdog Viginum, established in 2021 to detect and analyze foreign digital efforts to influence online public debate in France, detected the Russian activity and found that the RRN network appeared to have been informed about the graffiti before other posters on X.
The European Union has identified RRN as a digital information manipulation campaign that has also disseminated propaganda in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and is part of a broader hybrid campaign by Russia against the EU and its member states.
The graffiti, which quickly sparked debate and concern about the safety of France's Jewish community, are now the subject of French police investigations to determine whether they were antisemitic and if they were organized from outside France.