French disinformation watchdog links Azerbaijan to 2024 Olympic smear campaign

Paris has linked Azerbaijani figures to a disinformation campaign aimed at tarnishing France's reputation as host of the 2024 Olympic Games.

People walk past the Olympic Rings looking at their mobile phones at the Hotel De Ville in Paris. The French state digital disinformation watchdog claims that trolls based in Azerbaijan are actively engaaged in a smear campaign againt France, ahead of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. AFP - BEHROUZ MEHRI

Diplomatic tensions have simmered between France and Azerbaijan of late, with the ex-Soviet country accusing Paris of supporting its arch enemy Armenia and pursuing a policy of "militarisation" in the South Caucasus.

France is pulling out all the stops to host the 2024 Olympic Games, which will take place from 26 July to 11 August.

According to a report from state digital watchdog Viginum, seen by media outlets this week, an investigation was launched in late July after "several visuals calling for a boycott of the 2024 Olympics" were widely shared on X (formerly Twitter).

Viginum – France's service for Vigilance and Protection against Foreign Digital Interference – alleges the campaign featured images of riots, the city of Paris and also the logo of the Olympic Games, and involved three official X accounts of the games and two hashtags #PARIS2024 and #BOYCOTTPARIS2024.

Reuters: #France’s cyber defence unit has unveiled a disinformation campaign emanating from #Azerbaijan that aimed to undermine #Paris’ capacity to hold next year's Olympic Games. #Olympics pic.twitter.com/nIt2EnefRh

— Karina Karapetyan (@KarinaKarapety8) November 14, 2023

Artificial accounts

On 26 and 27 July, more than 1,600 posts accompanied by these visuals or hashtags appeared on X.

Around 90 accounts appear to be behind these posts "suggesting artificial amplification", the report states. 

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Viginum added that 40 of them were created in July 2023 and only published content calling for a boycott of the Paris Games.

The probe also revealed that of these 90 accounts, "a significant proportion had at least one link to Azerbaijan" such as a photo featuring the Azerbaijani flag, Azerbaijani locations, or excerpts from speeches of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Misspelled place names – Bordo instead of Bordeaux or Monpelye instead of Montpellier – were another "marker of inauthenticity", the report said.

🇦🇿⚡️🇫🇷 Campagne de boycott des JO de Paris: la France demande des explications à l'Azerbaïdjan
⎯⎯⎯

■ Le service français chargé de la lutte contre les ingérences numériques étrangères (Viginum) a mis au jour une campagne, relayée en grande partie depuis l’Azerbaïdjan,… https://t.co/37MiQ5lgvy

— RÉ:PUBLIC PRESS (@REPUBLICPRESSfr) November 14, 2023

Links to Azeri ruling party

The watchdog has also identified an account at the origin of the online content targeting the Games.

The account @MuxtarYev published 15 visuals calling for a boycott, which were then amplified by inauthentic accounts and picked up by X accounts linked to Azerbaijan – a pattern that "reinforces the hypothesis of a coordinated manoeuvre", Viginum said. 

Created in June 2023, the @MuxtarYev account claims to be located in Azerbaijan. 

The name Muxtar Nagiyev and the account's profile photo coincide with the identity of the chairman of the Sabail district organisation of the New Azerbaijan party, the ex-Soviet country's ruling party.

According to the report, Azerbaijani national Orkhan Rzayev, who runs two companies including Mediamark Digital, could also be linked to the smear campaign.

At the time of the smear campaign, France had repeatedly criticized Azeri authorities over the blocking of the Lachin corridor, the key road that links Armenia to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.