The social media platform X has for months been aflush with praise for United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan in posts shared by hundreds of profiles — and all found to be fake.
Analysed by AFP over several days, the large-scale operation, powered by artificial intelligence, points to a sophisticated, coordinated influence campaign not unlike those carried out by Russia in recent years — though its instigator and objectives remain unclear.
“French people, (if you are) disappointed and weary of endless debate, it is time to think about an alternative, such as the United Arab Emirates, where business conditions are really attractive,” one sham account wrote.
It is part of a network of more than 2,300 active accounts in a dozen languages, including English, French and German, according to the collective Antibot4Navalny which monitors influence operations on X and teamed up with SourcesOuvertes to identify the campaign. Some boast up to …