The agency for protection against foreign digital interference, Viginum, accuses Azerbaijan of having carried out a destabilization operation on social networks against France. In a report, she denounces Baku's action which aimed to degrade the image of France among overseas populations and the Corsicans.
New Caledonia was just the tip of the iceberg. At the beginning of the summer, during the violence on the archipelago, Azerbaijani flags flourished among the rioters. France has just singled out Azerbaijan, suspected of having led a disinformation campaign on social networks for more than a year. An operation which was not limited to the Pacific: it also targeted overseas territories in the Caribbean, and even… Corsica.
It was Viginum, the protection agency against foreign digital interference, which discovered the pot aux roses. In a report published Monday, the institution accuses the Azerbaijani state of having wanted to degrade the image of France and its reputation among overseas populations and the Corsicans. Among the 423 accounts on X identified, all are linked to the power in place.
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The “BIG”, the armed arm of this manipulation
The Baku Initiative Group (“BIG”) is the armed wing of this manipulation. This organization brought Kanak, Polynesian delegations, Martinican, Guadeloupean and even Corsican independence activists to Baku. Together, they signed platforms to denounce France's supposed “racist policy and repression”.
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The BIG also allied itself with Pan-Africanists close to Russia. Each time, the challenge was to discredit France's action. The maneuver was flushed out. Although on certain days the number of publications exceeded a thousand, the noise on social networks remained limited since the messages were relayed less than a hundred times on average per publication.
