The online misinformation ahead of 2022 French presidential election

Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and following the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, feelings in France’s political sphere are arguably greater than ever

Analysts have prompt that the upcoming 2022 presidential election has extra weight than ever for Europe, provided that France holds the European Union presidency till July.

As is widespread for election campaigning, misinformation and false claims have woven their means into political debates and on-line conversations.

1000’s of social media customers have shared the false declare that Dominion’s digital voting tools could be used to validate the outcomes of the primary spherical of voting regardless that France has by no means used the corporate in elections.

The Canadian firm had been falsely accused by former US President Donald Trump and his supporters of facilitating widespread electoral fraud in the course of the 2020 election.

Dominion Voting Techniques have at all times denied the unfounded allegations and so they later claimed over €1 billion in damages for defamation.

False claims in regards to the election being “stolen” have appeared on a wide range of social media teams supporting far-right candidates Marine Le Pen, Eric Zemmour, or left-wing hopeful Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Some far-right accounts — echoing Trump’s claims — had voiced considerations about Dominion getting used to handle France’s election.

Customers on Fb, Twitter, and Vkontakte have relayed claims made by Russia’s overseas ministry that the election could be “completely rigged”. The rumours led the phrase “Dominion” to develop into a trending topic on French Twitter in mid-March.

However the French Inside Ministry has categorically denied that Dominion techniques will probably be used.

“The Ministry of the Inside doesn’t and has by no means referred to as on the companies of the Dominion firm within the context of the organisation of the elections,” an announcement learn.

“The outcomes of the counting of the votes in every municipality are communicated in real-time … by way of laptop techniques for centralising the outcomes developed by the [ministry] laptop companies for a number of years.”

“[These] are the topic of exams and safety approval of the Nationwide Company for the Safety of Info Techniques (L’ANSSI) particularly so as to keep away from any try at manipulation.”

Dominion makes no reference to any contract with French authorities on its web site, whereas Paris has stated that it doesn’t use exterior companies to depend ballots.

Unfounded rumours of “election fraud” aren’t unusual in Europe and appeared lately forward of elections in each Germany and the Netherlands.

French President Emmanuel Macron has beforehand warned that election misinformation poses a menace to democracy, and has argued that these chargeable for spreading “pretend information” on-line must be held accountable and probably dropped at justice.

The French authorities final yr created a selected company to fight overseas disinformation, whereas unbiased fact-checkers have additionally been stepping up their efforts forward of the April election.

“Misinformation about voting continues to flourish on-line – within the US after all — however in Europe too,” Chine Labbe, Managing Editor at NewsGuard, wrote in 2020.

“And simply because it threatens the essence of American democracy, additionally it is threatening to sow mistrust within the electoral course of in Europe forward of essential elections.”