The Internet brings us closer. Information manipulation
drives us apart.

French digital diplomacy contributes to reduce its impacts.

Fake news, misinformation, disinformation…

The topic is riddled with words covering different realities. We prefer the more generic term information manipulation.

Cambridge Analytica Scandal and the U.S. presidential elections

In 2016, Cambridge Analytica has been hired by the Trump candidate’s team to conduct a micro-targeted campaign on Facebook. The company is recovering the personal data of 87 million people via a third party application, and is running a targeted campaign against undecided voters selected on the basis of their personal data in order to influence their vote.

Read the case study

Incitement to hatred towards the Rohingya in Myanmar

In 2018, during the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, Facebook reveals that the military junta is conducting coordinated information manipulation campaigns using hundreds of fake accounts to incite hatred towards the Rohingyas and thus justify their forced migration.

Read the case study

Notre-Dame de Paris fire

The spread of information from Notre-Dame de Paris fire in April 2019 has been subject to several manipulations. A terrorist narrative is developing in the United States. Pro-Kremlin sources is linking the decadence of the cathedral to European values while Western Europe is highlighting pre-existing societal and religious divides.

Read the case study
Discover more case studies.
Information manipulation can be orchestrated by a variety of sources: state or non-state actors, such as companies or organisations, or even informal groups of individuals but often aims at disrupting our social cohesion and democratic processes.

These manipulations exploit vulnerabilities.

Vulnerabilites are due to the way information is presented online and can be exploited by bad actors to manipulate opinion.

Fake Social Media Profiles

By creating fake users, pages and groups with a variety of interests and commitments, attackers can mislead users about the reliability of the content and amplify its adoption.

Fake online polls

Create fake online polls, or manipulate existing online polls to generate fake engagement metrics and thus manipulate perception of given issue.

Data voids prefilling

Data voids prefilling can be used to fill the lack of quality and authoritative sources in search engine results to impose a narrative on a topic.

Paid targeted ads

Using paid targeted ads makes it possible to disseminate messages by targeting specific users on the basis of their personal data.

Automated Profiles

Automated profiles are designed to amplify content and give appearance content is more “popular” than it is. They can operate as a network, to function in a coordinated manner.

Create fake or imposter news sites

Fake news sites can be used to share information while misleading users. These sites often have some superficial markers of authenticity, such as naming and site-design.

Our approach is based on the AMITT framework.
The attention economy allows bad actors to gain money and views by publishing content that exploits our biases and tendencies to artificially create “engagement”, a metric for visibility that is too often misrepresented as measuring credibility or importance.

Within the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs the team of the French Ambassador for Digital Affairs coordinates and promotes France's positions to reduce these vulnerabilities.

Influence

We steer international governance towards proportionate and effective European regulation aimed at reducing such vulnerabilities to information manipulation.

Federate

We connect and promote relevant actors countering information manipulation. We also represent France in the various European and international forums.

Empower

We build open tools to strengthen all public, private and civil society actors countering information manipulation.