On February 6, 2026, French journalist Victor Cousin discovered that his identity and photo had been stolen and used to publish fake news alleging President Emmanuel Macron’s involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. The fabricated article, hosted on a fake news site francesoir.net (a copy of francesoir.fr), falsely claimed that the French president was implicated in paedophile activities linked to Jean-Luc Brunel, found dead in 2022. The disinformation campaign, known as Operation Storm-1516 and active since August 2023, is attributed by French digital security service VIGINUM to Russian actors employing the CopyCop modus operandi and has the goal of ending Western aid to Ukraine by targeting allied leaders, media, and elections. The fake article was shared millions of times across social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, often alongside videos targeting Macron. More than 90 articles were fraudulently published in Cousin’s name since December 2023 to lend credibility to the campaign. VIGINUM confirmed strong technical attribution to the Russian-linked network maintained by John Mark Dougan, an ex-American policeman exiled to Russia. Cousin filed a police report and coordinated with Le Parisien’s legal services to get the fraudulent site shut down after five hours. The incident underlines the sophisticated use of AI and false site creation by Russia to conduct hybrid interference operations against European targets.
Category: Cyber & Information Warfare
Subcategory: Information Operations
Incident Type: Propaganda & disinformation campaigns
Country: France
Source report: www.leparisien.fr/politique…
