Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said this week it is pressing X (Twitter) in France with criminal charges related to a Kremlin disinformation campaign that used the non-profit organization as a way to spread fake news. The organization said the legal measures are its “last step” in combating fake news, designed to fuel pro-Russian and anti-Ukraine sentiments, that abound on the platform. “X’s refusal to remove content it knows to be false and misleading – as duly notified by RSF – makes it complicit in the spread of disinformation circulating on its site,” said RSF director of advocacy Antoine Bernard in a statement.
“These legal measures seek to remind X, a powerful social media company, and its executives that they can be held criminally liable if they intentionally provide a platform and tools for the dissemination of false information, identity theft, perjury, and defamation – crimes punishable under the French Penal Code,” wrote the RSF lawyer. Emmanuel Daoud.
RSF published an investigation in September detailing how a fake video was planted and circulated by Russia on a social media platform run by Elon Musk. The fake clip was made to look like it was made by the BBC, including the news organisation’s logo. It is a false accusation that the RSF conducted research that revealed a large number of Ukrainian soldiers who sympathized with Nazism.
False claims that Ukraine is a pro-Nazi nation have been a common propaganda tactic used by Russia since its 2022 invasion. The narrative is designed to bolster support for the Kremlin-initiated war, which is estimated to have killed a million or more Ukrainians.
An RSF investigation revealed that an account named “Patricia,” claiming to be a translator in France, planted the seeds of disinformation. However, the report found that the account’s profile picture was found on a Russian website with images of white women designed to “create avatars.”
RSF says even the account name appears to have been auto-generated by X. In addition, the organization says that Grok, X’s AI chatbot with access to live data about the platform, said that the account “has very strong views, often supporting Russia. and Vladimir Putin, while they are very critical of Ukraine and its supporters in Europe.
The investigation found that the video then went viral, spreading through a chain that included an Irish Kremlin businessman living in Russia, a Kremlin broadcaster with a large following on Telegram and even Russian officials. It was also shared by “highly influential bloggers” who are known for their unwavering support for Vladimir Putin.
“In this case, the Russian authorities acted as if they were discrediting dirty information,” an RSF representative said in a video about the investigation (translated from French) in September. “They took false information and cleaned it up through official channels. Then, this information that was not real information was re-inserted into the public discourse to make it look credible.”
The fake Russian video was widely shared on X and Telegram. Reporters Without Borders says the clip reached half a million combined views on September 13. To capture its frustration at the attack on its credibility, the non-profit cited this quote (of unknown origin but often attributed to Mark Twain): “Lies can go. all over the world while the truth is still worn in its shoes.”
RSF says it has filed 10 reports of illegal content through the public broadcaster’s reporting system required by the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). “After a series of denials of X and requests for more information – provided by RSF – no report has resulted in the removal of defamatory content directed at our organization and its advocacy director,” wrote RSF.
In July, the US Department of Justice said it had uncovered and dismantled a Russian propaganda network that used nearly 1,000 accounts to push pro-Kremlin posts on X. The DOJ said the accounts were created as Americans and created using AI. In October, The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk held many secret phone calls with Vladimir Putin from 2022 until this year, describing those contacts as “a closely held secret in the government.”
“X’s refusal to remove content it knows to be false and misleading – as duly informed by RSF – makes it complicit in the spread of new information circulating on its site,” RSF director Bernard wrote in a statement. “UX provides those who spread lies and manipulate public opinion with powerful tools and unparalleled visibility, while the perpetrators are given absolute punishment. It is time for X to answer for himself. Pressing criminal charges is the last step in the fight against the disinformation propaganda and the war that RSF is a victim of, which is increasing in this ‘Muskian’ network.”
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