Three weeks before the French presidential election, a disinformation operation is trying to tarnish the legitimacy of the ballot. Taking advantage of a campaign context disrupted by the war in Ukraine, infox denounce in advance a rigged election on the model of what happened in the United States in 2020.
At the heart of the disinformation campaign, we find the Canadian company Dominion Voting Systems, which supporters of Donald Trump had wrongly accused of having tampered with the results for the benefit of Joe Biden.
According to exchanges on social networks, the same pattern would emerge in France for the presidential election of April 10 and 24, 2022. The results of the ballot would be rigged through the use of Dominion computer software, supposedly integrated into the machines to vote, or in the computers that collect the votes. Some claim that the counting of votes in France would be entrusted to this company, “ without tender “. According to this narrative, this is how outgoing President Emmanuel Macron would manage to ensure the renewal of his mandate.
ALERT ???: Dominion chosen without a call for tenders by Darmanin to centralize the votes!! We do not change a software that cheats well.
— Florent Ly-Machabert (@FLyMachabert) March 18, 2022
However, everything is wrong. This theory is not based on any factual element. No contract was signed between Dominion and the French State. The company confirmed this to us in writing: Dominion does not operate in France “. ” The Department of the Interior does not and has never used the services of the Dominion Company in connection with the organization of elections “, specified for his part to the World the Ministry of the Interior.
In France, the centralization of the results goes through a computer system developed internally by the National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (Anssi). The software therefore does not depend on Dominion or any other service provider.
As for Dominion in the United States, it should be remembered that the allegations of fraud turned out to be false. There is no longer any doubt today that the false information published in November 2020 in the United States emanates from a report fabricated by the team of outgoing President Donald Trump following his electoral failure.
In a survey published on March 17the British daily The Guardian reveals the real authors of the report and their objective: to justify Donald Trump’s stay in power on the pretext of ties between Dominion and a Venezuelan state company. This foreign interference would have allowed the incumbent team to invalidate the election results. A scenario invented from scratch. Furthermore, none of the legal actions for massive fraud have been successful.
Use of fake quotes
Although all the allegations against Dominion in the United States have been rejected, French conspiracy circles have been busy for several months recycling this theory in the French context.
Earlier this week, the #Dominion found itself trending on Twitter, thanks in particular to a series of quotes evoking a ballot manipulated by all kinds of fraud. Words put in the mouth of personalities as diverse as the presidents of Malta, Mexico, Brazil, Honduras, members of the Russian government, a Norwegian prime minister, or even a Haitian economist. However, verification made, none of these personalities uttered such words targeting the electoral process in France.
Depending on the scenario, it is the system for compiling the results that is targeted, or even electronic voting, and this, although in France, voting machines only concern 63 municipalities, i.e. barely 1.3 million. of voters. The fake news about the rigging and alleged generalization of electronic voting was launched at the end of November 2021 by far-right politicians.
Extremists and plotters on the move
At the origin of the spreading these fake quotes, there are mostly accounts from the conspiratorial sphere and support for candidates from the far right and, to a lesser extent, from the far left. Trends highlighted by the Politoscope, a tool developed by David Chavalarias of the CNRS Institute of Complex Systems, to measure how networks manipulate us. Some supporters of Éric Zemmour’s Reconquête party are spreading the fake news, with for example a video posted on Facebook and Twitter denouncing a pseudo plot for the re-election of Emmanuel Macron.
Among the followers of this theory, some relay initiatives to ensure a “ citizen control of the results “, with the key to incitement to insurrection, which is reminiscent of the method used by supporters of Donald Trump in the United States ahead of January 6, 2020.
Towards a contestation of the results
For now, the dissemination of this theory remains limited to well-identified political and informational spheres. But nothing says that these infox will not intensify as the election approaches. This narrative aims above all to sow the seeds of a contestation of the results. This is part of a broader dynamic of questioning democracy and its functioning.