Azerbaijani actors behind an information operation

5 mins

It all started this Wednesday, May 15, late in the afternoon, when a photo montage appeared on X, formerly Twitter. On the right, we see a bleeding person lying on the ground, on the left two armed men are standing behind a fence. One is aiming with a hunting rifle, the other is holding what looks like a stick in his hands. At the time of writing this article, we do not know exactly where these photos come from, or even if they are related to each other… A text accompanies this visual. It can be read: “ The French police are murderers. The carnage continues, Algeria… “. This approximate wording suggests that the person who originated it is not French-speaking. In the comments, the user adds “ French police officers are murderers, the murders of Algerians continue », with several hashtags like #NewCaledonia, #RecognizeNewCaledonia, #EndFrenchColonialism or even #BoycottParis2024.

A massively relayed photo montage

From the evening of Wednesday May 15, the RFI Verification Info cell detects the attack. In a few minutes, dozens of accounts began publishing this visual, with the same comment and the same hashtags, in different languages. Around 9 p.m., we find this photo montage thousands of times on X. “ It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4 000 publications generated via Azerbaijani or pro-Azerbaijani networks », Indicates a French government source to AFP.

Importantly, the accounts that share this visual have all been created recently. Most have very few subscribers and share the same posts daily. These indicators show that a network of fake accounts, what we call bots, was used to push this setup hostile to France.

Informational maneuver

If at this stage, we cannot identify a specific entity as being at the origin of this attack, the analysis of the content put forward by these fake accounts points to the possible involvement of Azerbaijani actors. The tweets from these bots talk almost exclusively about the politics of that country. There we find content glorifying President Ilham Aliev.

Another important point, by studying the use of hashtags shared with this visual, we quickly come across the Baku Initiative Group. This organization, created at the end of last year by the Aliyev regime, supports the separatists and regularly attacks France, in particular by relying on propaganda videos. At the time of writing this article, the information campaign was still in progress, this time with a video montage.

Azerbaijan singled out

Last November, Viginum, the French organization fighting against foreign digital interference, already warned about an information attack denigrating the Olympic Games, attributed to Azerbaijani actors. This coordinated campaign also followed the same operating procedure with a visual pushed by a network of bots. Concerning New Caledonia, the presence of #BoycottParis2024 also raises questions.

Baku refutes accusations of interference

If Baku firmly denies the accusations of interference, factually we know that in April, the country signed a memorandum of cooperation with an elected independence activist Kanak. This event had sowed disorder within the New Caledonian assembly.

We also saw several Azerbaijani flags flying during a protest movement by separatists against the visit of a delegation of French ministers last February. So how can we explain these maneuvers by Baku and this rapprochement with the separatists? This should undoubtedly be seen as a lever of pressure on France in an extremely tense diplomatic moment between Azerbaijan and France, particularly due to the support provided by Paris to the Armenians. We also note that the first Azerbaijani information attack, targeting the Paris Olympics, coincided with France’s delivery of military equipment to Armenia, in open conflict with Baku.