France Fights Disinformation as Olympics, Elections Loom

Difficult to ‘Distinguish Between Truth and Falsehood’
David Colon, a history professor at the Paris university Sciences Po, said disinformation practitioners don’t just traffic in lies. 

“Those who spread disinformation are aiming to confuse us so much so that we’re no longer able to distinguish between truth and falsehood and lose trust in our democracy and institutions,” he said. 

Colon said the invasion of Ukraine was a watershed. 

“Russian President Vladimir Putin had expected a swift victory,” he said. “Since that didn’t happen and Ukraine got the West’s backing, he now feels he’s fighting for his own political survival.”

Colon said that, in his role at the time as the Kremlin’s chief of staff, Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev had said in 2004 that Russia sought to support antiestablishment parties within the European Union — including France’s National Front, the precursor to Le Pen’s National Rally. 

In 2014, he said, the National Front was able to access a €9.4 million loan from First Russian-Czech Bank. 

The National Rally is now leading in French polls for the elections to the European Parliament in June, and pollsters no longer rule out the possibility that Le Pen could win the presidency in 2027. 

“By helping such parties, Russia aims to deepen divisions in our societies for them to disintegrate,” said Colon.

He added that disinformation efforts had increased ahead of the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in France.

“The Kremlin is trying to cast a doubt on France’s capacity to hold the Games and thus further weaken our country — for example by fanning fears of terror attacks,” he said.

Lutz Güllner, who leads a 42-member team dedicated to fighting disinformation at the EU’s External Action Service, also told DW that Russia is the main challenge. “France’s structure is really well-made,” said Güllner, whose group runs the European Union’s early-warning Rapid Alert System, which allows member states to share intelligence on disinformation campaigns.

France Frequently Targeted
Arthur de Liedekerke, the senior director of European affairs at the Brussels-based consultancy Rasmussen Global and a former strategic adviser in France’s Armed Forces Ministry, said there is a reason why the country was often the target of disinformation attacks. 

“Our army is deployed in numerous countries, we regularly organize international summits and events, and our politicians are known to take controversial views like President Macron, who recently said sending troops from other Western countries to Ukraine could no longer be entirely ruled out,” he said.

He also said France should consolidate its efforts to combat disinformation. Currently, the secret service cooperates with various ministries to react to attacks.

“France should bundle these tasks in one division to make better use of its resources,” said de Liedkerke.

France, EU Respond to Disinformation Attempts
Colon said Russia saw France as particularly susceptible to disinformation.

“They know that the French have always been skeptical toward their politicians and media and are sympathetic to powerful politicians like Putin,” he said. “But we are no longer weak and are fighting back.”

The European Union will also be on its guard in the run-up to the elections, Güllner said.

“That does not mean, however, that these elections will necessarily be manipulated,” he said. “That’s a narrative aiming to incite people to not even turn out to vote — we shouldn’t buy into it.”

Lisa Louis is a journalist based in Paris, France. This article was edited by M. Gagnon, and it is published courtesy of Deutsche Welle (DW).