PARIS, FRANCE (AFP) - A bedbug scare in Paris last autumn that grabbed headlines across the globe and led to schools closing was artificially amplified by social media accounts linked to Russian "disinformation" activities, a French minister has said.
"The bed bug polemic was in a very large part amplified by accounts linked to the Kremlin, and they even created a false link between the arrival of Ukrainian refuges and the spread of bedbugs," French European affairs minister Jean-Noel Barrot told TF1 television on Friday.
After social media users published footage of the insects crawling around in high-speed trains and the Paris metro, the scare picked up traction on French and foreign media.
The city of Paris' deputy mayor called on the government to help stamp out the bugs ahead of the Paris Olympics in summer 2024 – some schools and classes were temporarily closed and a deep inspection of metros and trains was carried out.
The authorities, however, found no trace of any unusual outbreak.
Destabilising public opinion
The media had already reported that French intelligence services concluded there was a link between Russia and the bed bug panic, but this is the first time a French minister has confirmed it in public.
Asked if the government believes Russian accounts had "orchestrated" the panic, Barrot did not confirm, saying the disinformation campaign had rather "amplified" an existing scare with the aim of creating a sentiment of insecurity.
Barrot said that Russian cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns had accelerated since the start of the war in Ukraine two years ago.
"We know this because of the Viginum service created in 2021, whose mission it is to detect such manoeuvres that aim to destabilise public opinion in France and to weaken public support for Ukraine," he said.
French military and cybersecurity experts recently uncovered an extensive network of Moscow-based fake news sites that were spreading Russian propaganda and disinformation across Western Europe.
In November last year, France blamed a Russian disinformation campaign for amplifying on social media Stars of David that had been dawbed on walls on 31 October in Paris, shortly after war broke out in Gaza.