Eight hundred. This is the number of organizations targeted by a very active pro-Russian disinformation campaign in recent months and particularly targeting press cells for verifying information. In a report published this Tuesday Morning, Check First returns to what she calls operation “Overload”. 20 minutes takes stock as Russia assured this Tuesday that it would “not interfere” in France and denied any disinformation campaign targeting the Paris Olympic Games.
What is this “Overload” campaign?
More than 800 organizations around the world, mainly media, were targeted by false content shared on X and Telegram and by emails sent directly to journalists. Editors often attached to the “fake news” decryption section.
According to a major report from Check First, a Finnish software company that investigates online disinformation, and Reset Tech, which specializes in e-security, “X accounts of more than 800 organizations from more than 75 countries were targeted by the pro-Russian disinformation network, including 104 French accounts.” “More than 100 emails have been sent to fact-checking services since August 2023, with a peak of activity in February and March,” also reports the TF1 channel website who confirms having been targeted.
In France, TF1 therefore but also Le Figaro, RFI Or The Parisian were approached. But also the Crous Paris or the Council of State. In Australia, 15 media outlets, including the ABC group, the Australian Associated Press (AAP), The Daily Aus and The Conversation have borne the brunt of this new pro-Russian influence campaign. ABC News claims that none of them were fooled, however. “We have no way of assessing how comprehensive we are. We believe we have only seen the tip of the iceberg,” said Guillaume Kuster, CEO of Check First, in a press release. Research which focused more carefully on Europe made it possible to list some 250 articles written following this shower of “fake news”.
What’s new with “Overload”?
What is new is that this new pro-Russian propaganda is not content to disseminate “fake news” to the general public, but directly targets journalists. “This is the first time we have documented these potential state-sponsored entities, specifically targeting the information and fact-checkers themselves,” he said. at ABC Shane Ripley, cyberthreat analyst at private intelligence firm Recorded Future.
How do activists do it?
Each attempt at destabilization begins with an e-mail or tweet written and posted by a citizen allegedly concerned by the news and containing corrupted links. Links leading to media pages addressing coverage of the false subject “with the same edition, the same fonts and the same layout as existing media”, continues the study.
And “sometimes about information that had absolutely no connection with Russia or with ongoing conflicts.” One of the emails received by the Australian press simply said: “Moby hasn’t given any concerts recently, this is very strange information, can you verify it?” »
It remains to be believed that the fact is widespread by “publishing different versions of the same story on the websites they control, on Instagram channels and on several Telegram channels, and coordinating to give the false impression that this “false content that they themselves created is everywhere,” explains Guillaume Kuster.
What is the objective of this disinformation campaign?
Well, to misinform and influence public opinion about the war in Ukraine. But above all “to clutter the fact-checking systems in the newsrooms”, admits Check First. Hence the name “Overload”, “overcharge” in French. “Their hope is to use journalists to waste their time and resources,” explains Guillaume Kuster.
Creating disinformation so that it can be debunked by a whole brigade of fact-checkers “may seem counterintuitive,” argues ABC, but researchers believe that the pro-Russians start from the principle that “all publicity is good publicity.” Because if the journalist allows himself to be fooled, then we are witnessing what is commonly called the “Streisand effect”: demystifying means giving importance to “fake news” and amplifying it. The story, even false, is spread and… it’s won. “Even if there is a big red cross and the word ‘false’ at the top of the story, it can make you laugh or can remain engraved in a reader’s head,” explains Guillaume Kuster.
What “fake news” is this?
Anti-Ukrainian graffiti in Paris, media screenshots or fake news extracts. From a fake propaganda video from the Russian army. Or anything that suggests that Ukraine’s allies are not capable of ensuring the security of their citizens. At the end of March, the TF1 Verifiers unit was asked to verify information relaying a drop in reservations during the Olympics.
In the fall of 2023, reports TF1, a graffiti by Volodymyr Zelensky disguised as a cannibal mobilized the “Fake Off” cells of numerous media for several weeks. It turns out that many German sites were talking about the funny artwork. Except that the graffiti was fake… just like the screenshots of the German sites.
Is Russia in charge of Overload?
This would not be surprising, according to Check First, which assures that “the objectives of the operation correspond to the interests of the Kremlin”. However, the media prefers to remain cautious and argues that all it can “say is that looking at the stories, it is pro-Russian”. The other clues? “Steer lines in Cyrillic left in emails and URLs and links to Telegram channels with names like ‘The Hand of the Kremlin,’” says Check First, which warns that it is unlikely that the Operation “Overload” is stopping soon.
All investigations from our Fake Off unit
This Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov denied any disinformation campaign targeting, among others, the Paris Olympic Games this summer, describing a new report from the Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) as “pure slander”. ), managed by Microsoft. Like “Overload”, the MTAC report cites two Russian influence groups, Storm-1679 and Storm-1099, which are accused of “sowing fear to dissuade spectators from attending the Olympic Games”.