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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said<\/a> this week it\u2019s pressing criminal charges against X (Twitter) in France related to a Kremlin disinformation campaign that used the nonprofit as a prop to spread fake news. The organization said legal means are its \u201clast resort\u201d in its fight against the bogus stories, designed to foster pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine sentiment, that festered on the platform. \u201cX\u2019s refusal to remove content that it knows is false and deceitful \u2014 as it was duly informed by RSF \u2014 makes it complicit in the spread of the disinformation circulating on its platform,\u201d RSF director of advocacy Antoine Bernard said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThese legal proceedings seek to remind X, a powerful social media company, and its executives that they can be held criminally responsible if they knowingly provide a platform and tools for disseminating false information, identity theft, misrepresentation, and defamation \u2014 offences punishable under the French Penal Code,\u201d RSF attorney Emmanuel Daoud wrote.<\/p>\n RSF published an investigation<\/a> in September detailing how a fabricated video was planted and spread by Russia on the Elon Musk-owned social platform. The fake clip was made to look like a BBC-produced one, including the news organization\u2019s logo. It made the erroneous case that RSF conducted a study that revealed a large number of Ukrainian soldiers sympathizing with Nazism.<\/p>\n False claims that Ukraine is a pro-Nazi nation have been a common propaganda tactic used by Russia<\/a> since its 2022 invasion. The narrative is designed to engender support for the Kremlin-initiated war, which is estimated<\/a> to have killed a million or more Ukrainian people.<\/p>\n RSF\u2019s investigation revealed that an account called \u201cPatricia,\u201d claiming to be a translator in France, planted the seed for the disinformation. However, the report discovered that the account\u2019s profile picture was found on a Russian website featuring photos of blond women designed \u201cto make avatars.\u201d<\/p>\n RSF says that even the account\u2019s name seemed to have been automatically generated by X. In addition, the organization says Grok, X\u2019s AI chatbot<\/a> with access to live data about the platform, claimed the account has \u201cvery strong opinions, often in support of Russia and Vladimir Putin, while severely criticizing Ukraine and its supporters in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n The investigation found the video then took off, spreading through a chain that included a pro-Kremlin Irish entrepreneur living in Russia, a Kremlin propagandist with a large following on Telegram and even Russian officials. It was also shared by \u201chighly influential bloggers\u201d known for unflinching support of Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this story, the Russian authorities have acted a bit like they were laundering dirty information,\u201d an RSF representative said in a video<\/a> about the investigation (translated from French) in September. \u201cThey took false information, they laundered it through official channels. And then, this piece of information that wasn\u2019t actual information was reintroduced into public discourse to make it look credible.\u201d<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s bogus video was widely shared on X and Telegram. Reporters Without Borders says the clip\u2019s viewership reached half a million combined views by September 13. To capture its frustration with the blow to its credibility, the nonprofit cited the quote (of unknown origin but often attributed to Mark Twain): \u201cA lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n RSF says it filed 10 reports with X of illegal content through the social channel\u2019s reporting system required by the EU\u2019s Digital Services Act (DSA)<\/a>. \u201cAfter a series of rejections from X and requests for additional information \u2014 which RSF provided \u2014 none of the reports resulted in the removal of the defamatory content targeting our organisation and its advocacy director,\u201d RSF wrote.<\/p>\n In July, the US Justice Department said<\/a> it uncovered and dismantled a Russian propaganda network using nearly 1,000 accounts to push pro-Kremlin posts on X. The DOJ claimed the accounts posed as Americans and were made using AI. In October, The Wall Street Journal<\/em> reported<\/a> that Elon Musk held multiple private calls with Vladimir Putin from 2022 into this year, describing the contacts as a \u201cclosely held secret in government.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cX\u2019s refusal to remove content that it knows is false and deceitful \u2014 as it was duly informed by RSF \u2014 makes it complicit in the spread of the disinformation circulating on its platform,\u201d RSF director Bernard wrote in a statement. \u201cX provides those who spread falsehoods and manipulate public opinion with a powerful arsenal of tools and unparalleled visibility, while granting the perpetrators total impunity. It\u2019s time for X to be held accountable. Pressing criminal charges is the last resort against the disinformation and war propaganda that RSF has fallen victim to, which is proliferating on this \u2018Muskian\u2019 network.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n