False resignation of the French ambassador to Ukraine: the journey of an intox

Published on: 20/10/2022 – 16:44 Between October 18 and 19, many users of social networks, including a member of the National Rally party, as well as media in French-speaking Africa, relayed the information of the resignation of the French ambassador to Ukraine, Étienne de Poncins, pushing the latter to make an official denial on Twitter. The Observateurs editorial team took an interest in the course of this false information disseminated five days earlier and the reasons for its dissemination. On October 19, a member of the National Rally political party, Jean-Michel Cadenas, posted a tweet announcing the resignation of the French ambassador to kyiv, Étienne de Poncins, adding in his message that the latter would have said: “We no longer know what we are standing for here, even Volodymyr Zelensky is no longer here in kyiv, why continue to sacrifice the Ukrainian people”. The message prompted a response in the morning from the French ambassador to Ukraine himself asking him to delete his publication, because it was a “fake news”. Jean Michel Cadenas’ tweet has since been deleted but has been archived here. Étienne de Poncins has since published several photos of diplomatic events organized in kyiv, such as the reception of French forensic gendarmes who came on mission to Ukraine, or even in his office during a videoconference with the Senate. Happy to greet with the Prosecutor General #Ukraine A. Kostin the team of IRCGN forensic gendarmes who have finished their mission in Kharkiv and are returning to 🇫🇷. The ceremony was held in the parking lot of the Procuratorate due to the air attacks 🇷🇺 on #Kyiv. Fight against impunity 🇫🇷🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/6SN5sRrLNl— Etienne de Poncins (@EdePoncins) October 19, 2022 How did this false information come about? In the initial message relayed by the member of the National Rally, the sentence mentioning Volodymyr Zelensky caught the attention of the editorial staff of France 24 Observers. Looking for this sentence first on Twitter, it is possible to see that this sentence was relayed word for word with a particularity: the Z in the name of the Ukrainian president is written with a lowercase letter. Articles appeared as early as October 18 relaying this false information. Among them, we can note an article from the Senegalese media Senenews since modified, an article from the Senegalese site Actu 221.net still online, or an article from the Cameroonian site 237online still online. These occurrences are the oldest resumptions of articles by of the media and have in common that they are all from French-speaking Africa. Many also take up the spelling mistake on the name “zelensky” with the lowercase Z. Contacted by the editorial staff of the France 24 Observers, the journalist who wrote the article for Senenews explained that he had taken up this information after having seen it relayed everywhere on Facebook, and especially by Senegalese influencers. A search for the phrase “The French ambassador resigns” with the WhoPostedWhat tool reveals that this false information has been circulating for several days. There are many publications, particularly between October 16 and 19, using exactly the same sentences and the same punctuation. Some of these messages are embellished with the formula “very very urgent”. Others specify “read somewhere” or “read on a wall” without ever specifying a source. {{ scope.counterText }} {{ scope.legend }} © {{ scope.credits }} {{ scope.counterText }} i {{ scope.legend }}© {{ scope.credits }} In the post stream , a Facebook page named “RT Africa” ​​with the logo of the Russian channel RT also relayed this publication. She was quoted by several relays of disinformation, in particular Silvano Trotta, French pro-Russian conspiratorial videographer, who was surprised on his Telegram account to see this information only in Russian media. However, it is not clear if the Facebook page “RT Afrique” is linked to the Russian channel RT. The oldest publication publicly available and found by the editorial staff of the Observers of France 24 was published on October 14 at 5:25 p.m. in an Ivorian Facebook group called “African Democratic Observatory”. We find there exactly the same punctuation, the same typing error in the name Zelensky, and above all, the sentence affirming that Volodymyr Zelensky would have left kyiv. The editorial staff of France 24 Observers was able to speak with the author of the publication. The latter refused to indicate the source of his information or if he himself was the inventor of this publication and these quotations. However, the latter did not hide his anti-French feelings and invited the international media, including France 24, to “return to real information, otherwise by 2025 France will be hated everywhere in Africa because of [votre] way of doing” (sic). In the exchanges with this Internet user, the latter even had fun indicating the next false information that he was going to disseminate. Fifteen minutes after having sent it to us, the latter published it in the same Facebook group “African Democratic Observatory”. The author of this publication is not his first attempt: he distinguished himself on several occasions between September and October by relaying several totally invented quotes attributed to Vladimir Putin or to various African political personalities.Most of his publications, all posted in the “African Democratic Observatory” group, use the wording “very very urgent” visible in the one announcing the resignation of Étienne de Poncins. {{ scope.counterText }} {{ scope.legend }}© {{ scope.credits }} {{ scope.counterText }} i {{ scope.legend }}© {{ scope.credits }} he is the author of the ini publication tial which led several media and political figures to relay false information and caused a denial from the French ambassador in kyiv himself. This type of publication invented for the purposes of disinformation is not an isolated fact: in June 2020, the editorial staff of France 24 Observers had investigated a network of Facebook users in the Democratic Republic of Congo who invented quotes from political or public figures in order to obtain the maximum number of shares and who had deceived in some cases media.>> READ ON THE OBSERVERS: Who is behind these very popular pages of false quotes around Covid-19?