Українською читайте тут.
Author: Iryna Subota, project manager of the Independent Media Unit at the Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law for Detector Media
RT France's content is distributed in France and Belgium through mirrors, aggregators, clones and a network of websites.
In March 2022, in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union imposed sanctions on Russian state propaganda outlets such as RT and Sputnik and suspended their broadcasting in the EU. Despite this, RT content still remains in the information space of EU countries. We have analysed the accessibility of RT's website, including its French-language version, RT France, in France and Belgium, to assess how effective the sanctions have been in blocking this content.
In this research, we focused on analysing how RT France's content was distributed only through web resources, without analysing its dissemination on social media.
Firstly, we checked the accessibility of RT France's websites in the French and Belgian information space.
The analysis was carried out directly from the French and Belgian locations via local internet providers (without using a VPN). This made it possible to check the accessibility of RT France's websites in France and Belgium. All information regarding the technical aspects of the availability or inaccessibility of web resources in the information space of France and Belgium is described as of November-December 2024.
Second, we checked the distribution of identical materials on third-party French-language web resources.
The sample of publications for the study included materials posted on RT France's website in the International section and containing the words Ukraine, Kiev (transliteration preserved in accordance with the spelling in RT France's propaganda resource), ukrainien, ukrainiens, Zelensky in the headline.
Between 15 October and 16 November 2024, 71 publications that met the sample conditions were published on RT France.
The publications in the sample are just a few to search for identical materials and identify the frequency of their reproduction on other websites and the ways they are disseminated. The aim was not to distinguish between disinformation, manipulative or truthful content. The second part of the study aimed to identify the ways in which RT content enters the information space of France and Belgium.
The information was collected in three stages:
Stage I. Using the OSINT tool Information Laundromat, we identified a list of web resources that reproduce similar content by entering the URLs of a pre-compiled sample of materials published on RT France.
Stage II. We selected the most frequently repeated resources, removing only isolated cases of repetition of RT France content on some resources and focusing on those that republish RT materials on a regular basis.
Stage III. Additionally, we conducted a search on Google or through internal search engines of the websites included in the selected list of the most frequently repeated web resources. This allowed us to identify materials that may have been missed during the previous search and provide a more complete analysis of the distribution of RT France content on third-party French-language web resources.
We additionally used Whois and SimilarWeb to obtain technical indicators of the identified domains (such as registration data and traffic).
RT France from the start of broadcasting to EU sanctions
RT France, a part of the Russian government-controlled RT international network, started broadcasting in France in December 2017. The channel's premises were located in Boulogne-Billancourt (France). Initially, the team consisted of 150 propagandists and had a starting budget of 20 million euros. Ksenia Fedorova became the editor-in-chief of RT France.
RT France has been criticised by Emmanuel Macron during its work in France and has been under surveillance by French intelligence and the CSA ( High Council for Audiovisual Media). For example, in 2018, the CSA issued a warning to RT France following a report on Syria that, according to the regulator, contained ‘shortcomings in fairness, accuracy of information and diversity of viewpoints’.
Earlier in 2017, Emmanuel Macron also condemned Sputnik and RT for spreading rumours and defamatory statements about him during the French presidential campaign.
At a press conference in Versailles with Vladimir Putin in 2017, Emmanuel Macron, commenting on the issue of RT, said that ‘when the media spread slanderous lies, they are no longer journalists, they are organs of influence’. RT and Sputnik, during the French presidential election campaign, according to Macron, ‘did not behave like media and journalists. They behaved like organs of influence and false propaganda.’
Despite the criticism, the channel continued to operate in France.
Implementation and circumvention of EU sanctions
On 2 March 2022, in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union imposed sanctions on Russian state-owned propaganda outlets RT and Sputnik and suspended their broadcasting in the EU. The sanctions are part of the EU's efforts to combat the disinformation and propaganda used by Russia to justify its war against Ukraine and influence public opinion in the EU. The sanctions apply to all means of transmission and dissemination of information, such as cable, satellite, internet television, platforms, websites and apps.
The French branch of the Russian propaganda TV channel RT France went to court to demand that the sanctions be lifted and tried to get a delay in their application under an accelerated procedure. However, RT France was rejected by the EU court of general jurisdiction.
Although the channel was banned from broadcasting in the EU, RT France continued to produce content in its French office and broadcast it to countries where the channel was not banned, including French-speaking countries in Africa.
In January 2023, France froze RT France's funds, thanks to the ninth package of EU sanctions against Russia, approved in December 2022. After that, RT France stopped working in its French office, and the channel continued to broadcast from Moscow.
A screenshot of Ksenia Fedorova's tweet about the suspension of activities as a result of the ninth package of EU sanctions.
In April 2023, the Commercial Court in France officially declared the French-language RT France bankrupt.
Despite this, RT France has repeatedly claimed ‘censorship’ by the EU and actively used workarounds to maintain its influence in the European information space
