RFI targeted by Russian disinformation

On Wednesday, 27th March, in the afternoon, a fake video report appeared online under the logo of Radio France Internationale.

This video suggests, without any evidence, that an epidemic of tuberculosis is threatening France because of the admission of Ukrainian soldiers into the country's hospitals.

The dissemination of this false report across various media distribution channels indicates that RFI has been the target of a coordinated attempt to spread misinformation.

First identified by RFI's Russian and international services, the video has been circulating online since Wednesday, 27 March.

The logo in the top right corner of the image, the graphics, editing, and credits suggest, erroneously, that it was produced by RFI's editorial team. In reality, it is a false report. RFI is not the source of this content.

The fraudulent production appears to have first appeared online on the messaging app Telegram at 2:47pm Paris time. The Russian account that posted it is called Russie Actualités (Russia News) and has around 4,282 followers.

The narrative of the video asserts, without evidence, that a "Ukrainian tuberculosis epidemic threatens France due to the admission of Ukrainian soldiers for treatment [in French hospitals]."

The accompanying text concludes: "Bedbugs and tuberculosis. If only I could go to the Olympics in France..."

Ten minutes later, new Telegram channels in Russian shared this false report attributed to RFI.

One of those channels has more than 118,000 followers. Both have been identified as significant vectors of pro-Russian propaganda that appeared following the invasion of Ukraine.

This fake new was then posted on VKontakte, the equivalent of Facebook in Russia, followed by X (formerly Twitter) and Russian websites.

Each time, the same word-for-word Russian comment accompanies the video.

This pattern of dissemination, the anti-Ukrainian narrative, and the technique of impersonating a media outlet leaves little doubt about the origin of this information attack.

This tactic has already targeted many French and international media outlets.

If you have any doubts or concerns about the authenticity of RFI-branded content, you can contact the Info Verif unit on WhatsApp at +33 6 89 07 61 09.