Russia-linked operation pushed fake videos blaming France's riots on migrants, EU assessment says

An internal European Union assessment says a covert Russian network exploited last month's riots in France, using social media to portray the unrest as the work of unchecked immigrants and to suggest the government had lost control.

The network, known as 'Operation Overload', spread fabricated videos that mimicked Western media formats and targeted French audiences. Some carried false claims that immigrants had attacked protesters and that terrorist attacks were imminent, the report says.

A separate assessment by the French foreign ministry found that social media accounts linked to Israel and to the American MAGA movement also spread hostile portrayals of the riots. The ten most-viewed MAGA-linked posts about the unrest drew more than 49 million views in just three days, while Israel-linked posts drew over 35 million, the French report says.

Protests over the rising cost of living and the decline of public services grew into France's worst riots in decades. Moscow has not responded to the allegations; it earlier denied French accusations of campaigning around France's 2027 elections. Analysts call the dynamic 'narrative competition', in RAND researcher Elina Treyger's phrase, as rival actors race to frame fast-moving crises.