LONDON: France has revealed plans to set up a special agency to combat foreign misinformation and fake news generated to “undermine the state.”
The move, announced by government officials on Wednesday, was designed to tackle attempts to influence voting in the run-up to the country’s upcoming presidential elections.
The agency, expected to be launched in September, will be run by the bureau of the French Secretariat-General for National Defense and Security (SGDSN) and will employ up to 60 people to investigate online content.
SGDSN chief, Stephane Bouillon, pointed out that the agency would not act as an intelligence service and was “not about correcting or establishing the truth” but rather identifying attacks that came “from a foreign country or organization that aims to destabilize the state politically.”
During the 2017 presidential elections in France, Russian-linked groups were accused of a huge hacking attack on the party of centrist French President Emmanuel Macron, who was facing anti-EU nationalist Marine Le Pen.
The same groups were also blamed for attempting to rig the 2016 US election in favor of former American President Donald Trump and of meddling in Britain’s Brexit vote.
