Russian misinformation triggers explosion of fake articles in the press

Sin addition to the document, quoted by the news agency France-Presse (AFP), the responsibility of the fakenews is Russia and the case gained particular strength in France, where since the beginning of the summer, 85 false journalistic contents related to the presidential elections scheduled for the spring of 2027 were released.

According to AFP Chine Labbé, editorial director of NewsGuard, “there is an intensification of Russian campaigns before the elections” and, in the French case, “started nine months before the vote, which is very early.”.

This phenomenon of usurpation of identity has been observed since the beginning of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, and has grown in size in the first half of 2026, according to NewsGuard's report.

The organization, which analyzes the reliability of portals and content on the Internet, has identified, since 2022, about 906 journalistic content produced in the context of Russian influence operations that usurp the identity of media in the press.

These operations focus particularly on European media, “probably due to the support” of these countries to Ukraine, and target France on a large scale, with eight means among the 15 whose identity has been most frequently usurped.

With its European position, the Euronews channel is the main target, with 82 false journalistic content identified between March 2023 and September 2026, far ahead of the Libération (39), Charlie Hebdo (35), or the France-Presse Agency (20), it highlights the report. Among the other frequently targeted means are the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Politico.

“ In each case, Russian campaigns divert logos and graphical identities from brands, sometimes creating a new site with a URL address similar to the original one”, reports NewsGuard.

Although the mode of action is often the same, the narratives are more varied – false accusations of child pornography, threatening or insulting statements invented from the roots, among others – and aim to undermine confidence in the media.

These operations are attributed to the pro-Russian modes of action ‘Matriochka’, the best known and prolific, and ‘Storm-1516’, more sophisticated and with more complex narratives.

Their use has increased, in particular, thanks to the progress of artificial genetic intelligence, which makes it easy to create fake videos or very credible fake articles.