YELLOW VESTS FLOODED BY FAKE NEWS - OVER 100M VIEWS OF DISINFORMATION ON FACEBOOK
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YELLOW VESTS FLOODED BY FAKE NEWS OVER 100M VIEWS OF DISINFORMATION ON FACEBOOK Avaaz calls on Facebook to Correct the Record ahead of EU Elections -- with an in-depth study showing how fake news surrounding the Yellow Vests reached over 100 million views, and how Russia fueled the divide. 12/03/2019 - Avaaz Report
YELLOW VESTS FLOODED BY FAKE NEWS OVER 100M VIEWS OF DISINFORMATION ON FACEBOOK Avaaz calls on Facebook to Correct the Record ahead of EU Elections -- with an in-depth study showing how fake news surrounding the Yellow Vests reached over 100 million views, and how Russia fueled the divide. 12/03/2019
CONTENTS 1) The Summary - What the study shows 6 2) The Data - 105M views of fake news 8 3) The Stories - 6 case studies 10 4) The Methodology - How the study was done 18 5) The Russia Effect - RT France dominates the YouTube debate 20 6) The Solution - Correct The Record 26 Annex - 100 Fake News Table 32 5
1 THE SUMMARY - WHAT THE STUDY SHOWS This new in-depth study by the global citizens’ or factually incorrect posts. Furthermore, the movement Avaaz shows for the first time the findings shine a light on the increased efforts from unprecedented scale at which the Yellow Vest Russian state media, RT France, to fuel the protests. movement has been impacted by disinformation. The research was carried out by a team of According to its findings, fake news surrounding investigative reporters, researchers and data the French Yellow Vest movement has reached an analysts set up by the global citizens movement estimated 105 million views on Facebook alone, in a Avaaz to detect and deter disinformation ahead country with just over 35 million Facebook monthly of the European elections. It shows clearly that active users1. Facebook and other platforms’ responses to The research analyzed social media posts over a five disinformation in Europe are ineffective and pose month period - between November 2018 and March a serious threat to healthy public discourse and 2019 - and focused mainly on Facebook, where most democratic stability, especially in light of upcoming of the Yellow Vest social media interaction took EU elections in May. The report concludes by place. It took into account the top known 100 fake calling on platforms to work with fact-checkers to news stories circulating in the French Yellow Vest Correct The Record for everyone exposed to false movement, all of which were fact-checked by French or misleading content, as an emergency measure or international media. The selected stories are ahead of the elections. mostly malicious, made-up, purposefully misleading The study shows: JJ Disinformation in Yellow Vest Facebook • an image of a Yellow Vest protest in Paris, groups and pages reached over 105 million with a caption alleging that the image had views and over 4 million shares in the time been censored on Facebook or elsewhere; between November 1, 2018 and March 6, 2019. Le Monde fact-checkers debunked the claim that the photo or the caption were deleted JJ The 100 most viewed fake news stories (349,403 shares, 8,967,432 est. views) analyzed in this report include: JJ RT France’s overwhelming dominance of • a post with images including bleeding the French debate about the Yellow Vests ‘Yellow Vest protesters,’ which media and on YouTube: Research focusing on the 500 government allegedly hid from the public top YouTube results shows that Russia’s state - when some of the photos were actually media was the most viewed channel for videos taken at different protests near Madrid or related to the Yellow Vest movement in France in Catalonia (136,818 shares, 3,511,456 est. and accumulated over 2 times as many views views) as Le Monde, L’Obs, Le Huffington Post, Le • a video of French President Macron Figaro and FRANCE 24 combined. dancing in the Middle East “while France JJ How Avaaz’s policy proposal “Correct the suffers,” when the video was actually taken Record” could function as a deterrence for over a month before, during the Summit far-spreading fake news, by requiring that for the Francophonie in Armenia (183,390 Facebook and other platforms work with fact- shares, 5,700,000 views) checkers to issue corrections to all users who have been exposed to disinformation. 1 https://www.lejdd.fr/Medias/Internet/il-y-a-plus-de-35-millions-dutilisateurs-de-facebook-en-france-3850928 6 7
2 THE DATA - 105M VIEWS OF FAKE NEWS Figure 2.2 -- Top 100 most viewed fake news by topic, Nov. 1, 2018 - Mar. 6, 2019 FAKE NEWS AND THE Fake Gerard Lanvin letter The key focus of the study is the world’s biggest Table 2.1 below shows the 20 most viewed fake social media platform Facebook, by far the most news stories for the period between November FRENCH YELLOW VESTS popular online network used by the Yellow Vest 1, 2018 and March 6, 2019. Figure 2.2 shows all movement2. We examined posts shared by pages, 100 most viewed fake news as an infographic, Each circle is one piece of “fake news” - groups and profiles associated with the movement segmented by topic. The entire list of the 100 most size is equal to the total number of Facebook “censors” and limited our analysis to posts containing text, viewed fake news can be found in the Annex. As estimated views a Yellow Vests picture images, and videos. stated above, all of the analyzed fake news have been fact-checked by French or international media. Table 2.1 -- 20 Most Viewed Fake News Content, Nov. 1, 2018 - Mar. 6, 2019 NAME OF VIDEO VIEWS SHARES FAKE NEWS FACT-CHECK Yellow Vests protest picture being deliberately deleted by Facebook 8,967,432 349,401 https://www.facebook.com/groups/1136704289828258/ permalink/1144241582407862 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A66kHxLLAA5l1J0-d_ybp- r074KJWU8o/view?usp=sharing Fake Gerard Lanvin letter 6,467,620 252,000 https://web.archive.org/web/20181210110228/facebook.com/ https://factuel.afp.com/non-gerard-lanvin-nest-pas-lauteur-dune- Fake pictures of photo.php?fbid=10217401146005830&set=a.10201689078253956&- lettre-ouverte-anti-macron-tres-virale-sur-facebook type=3&theater police violence Macron dances while France is protesting 5,700,000 183,392 https://www.facebook.com/pat51343/videos/ https://observers.france24.com/fr/20181203-emmanuel-macron- vb.100007099055800/2072455656334383/?type=2&video_ danse-il-alors-mouvement-gilets-jaunes-debute source=user_video_tab Macron dances while France is protesting (2nd post) 4,944,624 192,659 https://www.facebook.com/yann.juarez/posts/2850952611587557 https://twitter.com/AfpFactuel/status/1066992424361312256 Fake photo of police support Police allegedly supporting Yellow Vest protesters 4,619,857 180,005 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1969051696548925&set= pb.100003323406258.-2207520000.1544447688.&type=3&theater https://twitter.com/AfpFactuel/status/1066818934664511489 for the Yellow Vests Fake police violence pictures 3,511,456 136,818 https://www.facebook.com/snoirotetthielen/posts/1971636099572802 https://observers.france24.com/en/20181129-debunked-videos- yellow-vests-france-protests Video of police officers taking off their helmets - Montpellier 4,468,048 174,090 https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/occitanie/herault/montpellier/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/283520695621830/ Figure 2.3 -- Views of the top 100 fake news by topic, Nov. 1, 2018 - Mar. 6, 2019 herault-melenchon-victime-infox-confond-frontignan-bordeaux-chal- permalink/293590931281473 eur-soutien-1579669.html Disobedience call from an alleged policeman 3,900,000 248,867 https://www.facebook.com/djohn.attend.5/ videos/2139730536342642/ https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/2382079-20181128-video-gilets- jaunes-policier-vraiment-publie-videos-soutien-mouvement Outdated police violences and allegedly being erased 3,516,127 137,000 (need to be a member of the group to see the post) https://www.facebook.com/groups/298362254331895/ permalink/317972172370903 from an old 2016 video: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=qNvdpPHzniY FRENCH YELLOW VEST France 3 TV intentionally censoring journalist 3,700,000 119,059 https://www.facebook.com/Bassiste.de.Fanatic.Control/videos/ vb.1234098273/10217681408767031/?type=2&theater https://factuel.afp.com/gilets-jaunes-demeler-le-vrai-du-faux-de-trois- jours-de-mobilisation-0 FAKE NEWS DATABASE BY Police beating students (outdated) 3,600,000 161,862 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=348619922581785 https://factuel.afp.com/hors-contexte-anciennes-ou-faussement- legendeestoutes-les-images-de-violences-en-marge-du-mouvement ESTIMATED VIEWS AND TYPE 3,500,000 135,169 http://www.leparisien.fr/societe/gilets-jaunes-les- Macron hired mercenaries; secret services support Yellow Vest protests https://www.facebook.com/nicole.guegan.735/ mercenaires-de-macron-et-autres-intox-qui-pullulent-sur- Each circle represents one piece of fake news labeled by videos/2709389059285694/ facebook-05-12-2018-7961382.php Police officers taking off their helmets - Bordeaux 3,300,000 121,983 https://www.facebook.com/benjamin.e.dupouy/ videos/10218125252782142/ https://factuel.afp.com/la-police-bordeaux-retire-son-casque-en- soutien-aux-gilets-jaunes-une-interpretation-douteuse keywords; filtered to show content with >2,500,000 views 2,000,000 72,457 https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2018/12/06/vendre-la- UN is planning the replacement of European population by migrants https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=361553517934236 france-a-l-onu-de-donald-trump-aux-gilets-jaunes-l-itineraire-mondial- d-une-intox_5393268_4355770.html Marrakech Pact conspiracy 3,100,000 108,617 https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2018/12/06/vendre-la- https://www.facebook.com/romeo.piacquaddio/ france-a-l-onu-de-donald-trump-aux-gilets-jaunes-l-itineraire-mondial- videos/1430180387116830/ d-une-intox_5393268_4355770.html Untrue claim that French MPs salary higher than in Germany 2,406,288 93,757 https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2016/12/30/quels- https://www.facebook.com/groups/310403819778193/ pays-europeens-remunerent-le-mieux-leurs-elus_5055895_4355770. permalink/342917016526873 html Picture of rugby supporters used for illustrating YV protest 2,277,655 88,745 https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/faits-divers-justice/fausse-video-de- post has been deleted but screenshot shared here by AFP on twitter: l-agression-d-un-handicape-a-quimper-le-prefet-du-finistere-porte- https://twitter.com/AfpFactuel/status/1064287475886112768/photo/1 plainte-1542826305 Croatia president giving up her presidential plane 1,918,240 74,741 https://www.facebook.com/groups/310403819778193/ permalink/332905080861400 https://factuel.afp.com/non-la-presidente-croate-na-pas-vendu-lavion- presidentiel-et-baisse-son-salaire-de-30 Police intentionally throwing a grenade at a protester 1,600,000 57,807 https://www.facebook.com/gjpourlepeuple/ videos/290734811786372/ https://factuel.afp.com/des-policiers-visent-deliberement-ce-gilet- jaune-avec-une-grenade-la-police-et-le-manifestant-ne 1 https://jean-jaures.org/nos-productions/en-immersion-numerique-avec-les-gilets-jaunes 8 9
3 THE STORIES - This chapter presents brief case studies of some of the most shared and viewed fake news from our research3. Every item has a summary of the 6 CASE STUDIES fake news, its reach and verification of the events depicted by the posts. 1 POLICE BRUTALITY, CONTEXT MANIPULATION Below are two examples of where some of the images originally came from: POLICE BRUTALITY AT YELLOW VEST PROTEST LEAVES PEOPLE BLEEDING FAKE NEWS: A Yellow Vest supporter shared a collection of images of people, supposedly showing them as Yellow Vest protesters who are victims of French police brutality, with a caption that reads “the media and the government of Macron have hidden the images of peaceful protesters beaten by the CRS” (the general reserve of the French National Police). REACH: The post quickly went viral on Facebook and reached 136K shares and over 3.5M estimated views by March 6, 2019. VERIFICATION: The post was made up of several photos taken at different protests, cities, countries and events around the world, yet suggested they were all the result of French police brutality toward the Yellow Vest movement. For instance, the image of the young woman bleeding was from a Coal Mining protest in Spain back in July 11, 2012. The one from the older woman bleeding was taken at a Catalonian protest on September 11, 2017. “Miners clash with police while demonstrating in Madrid.” Facebook has recently added below the post This Getty Images caption shows that the photo was related content articles from Observers France 24 actually taken near Madrid, Spain on July 11, 2012. and AFP that explain the misuse of such images. This AFP Factuel post reads, “The third image of an older lady with a bloodied face has been shared around social networks during the autumn 2017 Catalan referendum.” 3 Screenshots were taken November 2018 - March 2019. 10 11
2 ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT, CONTEXT AND DATE MANIPULATION 3 CENSORSHIP MACRON DANCES WHILE FRANCE SUFFERS THE YELLOW VEST MOVEMENT IS BEING CENSORED FAKE NEWS: This video was posted on Facebook FAKE NEWS: This post was published on November VERIFICATION: The post is still available on the on November 17, 2018, the day the first Yellow 25, 2018, with the caption “this picture has just platform and as fact-checkers from Le Monde have Vests protests happened. The video depicts been erased, share massively,” insinuating that the said, “this image taken by photographer Olivier Coret President Macron and his wife dancing to Middle content had been censored. has been used to illustrate many online publications Eastern-sounding music at a gala event with the that have not been censored on Facebook or caption, “And while France is suffering,” insinuating REACH: When first published with the censorship elsewhere. [...] the very fact that this photo was Macron was “partying” while French citizens were accusations, massive sharing started and by March published on November 25 and is still available […] protesting. 6, 2019, it reached over 349K shares, leading to over proves that there was no censorship.” 8.9M estimated views. The image, with the false REACH: The video went viral within days, reaching caption, was still available at the close of this study. 5.7M views and over 183K shares by March 6, 2019. VERIFICATION: The original video was published a month before the first Yellow Vest protests happened, on October 11. It was recorded during the International Organization of the Francophonie summit in Armenia. Media outlets published several articles explaining the manipulation of dates and context. At time of publication, Facebook still had not issued a related article below the video or provided further information. 12 13
4 CONSPIRACY THEORY, POLITICAL NEWS MANIPULATION 5 ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT SUPPORTED BY PUBLIC FIGURES MACRON IS SELLING FRANCE AFTER SIGNING THE MARRAKECH PACT GERARD LANVIN, A FAMOUS FRENCH ACTOR, PUBLISHED AN OPEN LETTER AGAINST MACRON AND HIS GOVERNMENT FAKE NEWS: A man named Romeo Piacquaddio recorded himself in early December 2018 describing an extremely important message he received on his phone. He plays the audio of an unidentified woman warning that Macron was going to “sell France by signing the UN migration pact on December 10.” The female voice then claimed that after signing this treaty, Macron would resign and that the Yellow Vest movement would be used as a cover up. REACH: The video was shared 108K times and reached over 3.1M views by March 6, 2019. Disinformation about the Marrakech UN Migration Pact, warning of alarming mass migration into France, was shared across multiple Yellow Vest groups, including by Maxime Nicolle, one of the leaders of the movement. VERIFICATION: Articles by multiple newspapers, such as Le Monde, have since refuted claims that the treaty would lead to open borders or that countries would be forced to change their migration policies. The controversy started spreading in France in early 2018 when extreme right pages such as Breiz Atao and Polémia began sharing the content. By late November, the topic FAKE NEWS: On December 8, 2018 a letter allegedly people. The first post spreading the disinformation became popular in the Yellow Vest groups. written by French actor Gérard Lanvin, criticizing has been removed by Facebook, but variations of President Macron and his government, was shared the same content (1, 2, 3) can still be found without widely on social media. It strongly condemned any alert from the platform. public officials as well, saying that people who “from birth to death live off of public funds, enjoy special social security benefits and are exempt from taxes, should at least have the decency of not talking about equality.” REACH: In less than 48 hours, this post was shared over 251K with over 6.4M estimated views. The same post, or similar variations, were shared on different pages and groups on Facebook (see screenshot at right). VERIFICATION: The letter shared was not written by Gérard Lanvin. The actor claimed he was a victim of identity theft and has since reported the incident to the authorities. The fake news took excerpts of a real letter published in 2013 by the actor, originally addressed to then President François Hollande, around a controversial income tax for wealthier 14 15
6 POLICE BRUTALITY AND ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT A MOTHER IN THE NETHERLANDS IS ARRESTED BECAUSE SHE REFUSED TO TAKE OFF HER YELLOW VEST. FAKE NEWS: The video was first shared by “Pegida Nederland.” It was filmed in the Netherlands and the caption says, that the police arrests a lady with a stroller because she refused to remove the yellow vest. REACH: The video was quickly translated to French, English and Italian. The English version alone received 32K shares, and an estimated 1.3M views, by March 6, 2019. Many comments expressed outrage over the perceived police brutality directed toward a woman with a child, and interpreted the incident as an attack on freedom of expression. VERIFICATION: According to AFP, the woman in the video had raised the suspicion of police forces because she was walking with a doll in a stroller, not with a baby, and once she wasn’t able to prove her identity, she was detained, which is in accordance to Dutch law. 16 17
4 OUR METHODOLOGY The 100 fake news stories we selected are mostly malicious, made up or factually incorrect posts. But they also include purposefully misleading content that is either out of date, is taken out of context, or its content is regarded as either factually uncertain and at least partially inaccurate. As stated above, all of them Facebook has long been criticized for the lack of transparency it provides to fact- have been fact-checked by French or international media. checkers, governments, media and the wider public about the spread of content. However, Avaaz’s team of data scientists and researchers used a combination of JJ VIEWERSHIP CALCULATION FOR FAKE NEWS VIDEOS: Our fake news selection Facebook’s public data, analytics tools like CrowdTangle, fact-checks by French and contained 37 examples of fake news video content accumulating to a total of international media and statistical modeling to arrive at what we believe provides a 42,777,224 views and 1,666,743 shares. We followed Facebook’s definition of what credible and conservative picture of the reach and impact these fake news stories constitutes a “view,” that is, a viewing experience that lasts 3 seconds or longer4. have had in France. JJ VIEWERSHIP ESTIMATION FOR IMAGES AND TEXT: Facebook discloses the number of views for videos, but for posts containing only text and image content JJ TIME FRAME: The first national Yellow Vest movement demonstration was on the platform displays only the number of shares and other interactions, such as November 17, 2018. However, many of the Facebook groups and pages at the core of likes or comments. Therefore, in order to estimate viewership for text and image the movement were created weeks earlier. For this reason, we focused our Facebook content we designed a metric based on the publicly available statistics of the research on content created between November 1, 2018 and March 6, 2019. Facebook videos analyzed in our study, taking into account the total number of video views and dividing it by the total number of video shares. Facebook reports JJ SCOPE: A number of analyses and media reports have shown strong evidence that a “video view” only after 3 seconds, while an image or text can be considered as Facebook was by far the most popular social media platform used by the Yellow Vest “viewed” and having an actual impact in less than 3 seconds (e.g. just scrolling by movement participants. We examined social media posts shared by pages, groups and an image of a bleeding woman, police brutality or claims of censorship). Therefore, profiles associated with the movement and limited our analysis to posts containing the estimation of total views in this study is very likely lower than the actual total text, images and videos while excluding links to outside content. viewership of all content and therefore is to be seen as a conservative figure. JJ TOTAL NUMBER OF FAKE NEWS VETTED, SHARES, AND VIEWS: JJ ENGAGEMENT RATE CALCULATION FOR IMAGES AND TEXT: As laid out above, the metric to estimate the views of images and text is based on the “average Yellow Vest fake viral content engagement rate” (from now just “YV engagement FAKE NEWS POSTS SHARES VIEWS rate,” with YV standing for Yellow Vests), which is calculated by using the available video data with the following formula: VIDEOS 37 1,666,743 42,777,224 YV engagement rate = (YV video views/YV video shares) IMAGES & TEXT 63 2,438,894 62,594,602 (est.) Based on the 37 fake news videos in our database, the average YV engagement rate is: TOTAL 100 4,105,637 105,371,826 (est.) 42,777,224 video views / 1,666,743 video shares = 25.6651589 views/share The average YV engagement rate is then multiplied for the number of shares of JJ FAKE NEWS SOURCES AND SELECTION CRITERIA: We used three different strategies posts for which views are not provided by Facebook (containing images and text). to identify the fake news for our analysis: a) We collected all the Yellow Vest-related YV engagement rate * YV image and text shares = estimated YV image and text views fake news reported by the main fact-checking websites in France (including but not limited to: AFP Factuel, 20 Minutes, Les Décodeurs and Checknews); b) Using the The total number of estimated views for posts containing images and text are: analytics tool CrowdTangle, we selected 198 public groups and pages used by the Yellow Vest movement and scrutinized their posts to identify fake news; and c) We 25.6651589 views/share * 2,438,894 shares = 62,594,602 total estimated views added the fake news from Le Monde’s own research based on another group of 204 Yellow Vest Facebook groups from October 31 to January 22. Out of those, we selected Therefore, the total number of views ( video views + estimated views for image and text) is: the 100 most shared posts among the fake news we had identified. 62,594,602 video views + 42,777,224 est. image and text views = 105,371,826 est. views JJ CATEGORIES OF FAKE NEWS INCLUDED IN THE STUDY: We included in our study content that falls within the definition of disinformation as articulated by the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation: “verifiably false or misleading information All the posts mentioned in this research were active and available as of March 6, which, cumulatively, (a) ‘Is created, presented and disseminated for economic gain or to 2019 or screenshots of the original posts together with data on shares and views intentionally deceive the public’; and (b) ‘may cause public harm’, intended as ‘threats were provided and can be found in the annex. to democratic political and policymaking processes as well as public goods such as the protection of EU citizens’ health, the environment or security.” 4 https://www.facebook.com/business/news/Coming-Soon-Video-Metrics 18 19
5 THE RUSSIA EFFECT - RT FRANCE Figure 5.1 -- Top 20 channels publishing Yellow Vest content, ordered by number of views DOMINATES THE YOUTUBE DEBATE and based on the 500 most relevant Yellow Vest videos, Nov. 1, 2018 - Mar. 7, 2019 FRENCH YOUTUBE CHANNELS WITH THE A second part of the report focused on YouTube, HIGHEST NUMBER OF VIEWS and two datasets were analyzed. Based on the 500 most relevant videos for the search query “Gilet Jaune” The first one looked at the 500 most relevant Yellow Vest videos after September 2018 according to the YouTube algorithm when running a search query for “Gilets Jaunes” both for the French language and for the French region code. Although this dataset only allows a partial picture of total views for each channel, being based only on the top 500 videos, it allows us to assess the biggest channels producing the most relevant Yellow Vest content and their relative strength on YouTube. The second dataset was obtained by querying RT France’s channel and other mainstream media channels - Le Monde, L’Obs, FRANCE 24, Le Figaro, LeHuffPost - using the YouTube API, and filtering the data to retain only videos uploaded after September 2018 with the search query “Gilets Jaunes.” This allows a much more precise comparison of their viewerships. The results from both datasets are overwhelmingly clear: RT France is the most viewed channel on videos related to the Yellow Vests in France and accumulated more than twice as many views (23,1M) than Le Monde, L’Obs, FRANCE 24, Le Figaro, LeHuffPost combined (10,9M). According to the US Director of National Intelligence, RT (Russia Today) is “the Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet” and “contributed to the influence campaign” of the 2016 US elections5. In the US, RT has been suspended by Twitter from ad-buying in the fall-out from the US elections due to their clear bias6. YouTube rolled out a feature in the US in 2018 informing users if they’re watching a video from an organization that receives funding Another observation from Figure 5.1, is that alternative media, YouTuber and citizen from a government. At the close of this study, journalists, including a few channels featuring conspiracy theories, have more we have not found that such notifications were visibility on YouTube than most of the traditional media, many of which are not even shown to YouTube users in Europe, nor do we have featured in the top 20. indications that this will be implemented in Europe ahead of the EU elections in May7. 5 https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf 7 https://youtube.googleblog.com/2018/02/greater- transparency-for-users-around.html 6 https://www.npr.org/2017/10/26/560199026/twitter- ends-russian-state-media-advertisements-citing-2016- interference-efforts?t=1552208868105 20 21
RT France’s dominance is even more clear when looking at the number of videos As mentioned above, to further study RT France’s content and publishing uploaded on Yellow Vests. Among the top 500 YouTube results, the Russian state behavior, we queried RT France’s YouTube channel using the YouTube API. The media has 3 times more videos (101) than the second biggest publisher (Le original dataset contained 17,340 observations (videos) between September 2014 Media - 30) and more than the next 7 channels cumulatively (100). and March 2019. As a first step, we filtered the data to retain only observations uploaded after September 2018. This second dataset strengthens our analysis. 18 out of the 20 most viewed Figure 5.2 -- Top 20 channels publishing Yellow Vest content, ordered by number of videos on RT France’s YouTube channel since September 2018 are about the videos uploaded and based on the 500 most relevant Yellow Vest videos, Nov. 11, 2018 Yellow Vests. The following graph shows these top 20 videos by view count. The - Mar. 7, 2019 orange bars are Yellow Vest-related videos. Figure 5.3 -- Top 20 RT France’s videos by view count Sep. 1, 2018 - Mar. 6, 2019 FRENCH YOUTUBE CHANNELS WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF UPLOADED VIDEOS 18 OUT OF 20 OF RT FRANCE’S MOST VIEWED YOUTUBE VIDEOS ARE ABOUT THE YELLOW VESTS Top 20 videos by view count since September 2018 22 23
RT FRANCE’S VIDEOS ABOUT THE YELLOW VESTS MARSHALED THE MOST VIEWS RT France has massively invested in coverage of the Yellow Vest protests, including hour-long live coverage videos, and as a result, dominated the debate about Based on each channel’s videos published since September 2018 Yellow Vests on YouTube in France more than any other YouTube channel, let alone mainstream media. RT has permeated the movement to the extent that protesters at one point chanted “Thank You, RT! Thank You, RT!” which the global RT network posted directly onto their YouTube channel. YT CHANNEL UPLOADED VIDEOS TOTAL VIEWS RT France 588 23,128,218 RT France Total 588 23,128,218 Le Monde 18 3,216,740 To assess the full reach of RT France on YouTube, we compared the channel’s total L’Obs 24 3,014,017 views with those of the the largest mainstream media in France by retrieving all FRANCE 24 157 2,513,408 videos about the Yellow Vests since September 2018 from the YouTube channels of LeMonde, L’Obs and LeHuffPost (all of which were present in the top 20 Le Figaro 43 1,342,060 channels of the first data set). In addition, we retrieved videos from two more LeHuffPost 14 795,934 channels which are among the most well-known and highest-circulation media, France 24 and Le Figaro. Mainstream 5 Total 256 10,882,159 The results show that on YouTube, the information diet is not mainly made up RT France / Mainstream 5 230% 213% of quality journalism from within France - but by Russian state media and lots of fringe actors (see initial analysis on 500 most relevant videos): • RT France has accumulated more than twice as many views (23.1M) as Le Note: The difference in the total views for RT France from the first dataset (13M views) Monde, L’Obs, FRANCE 24, Le Figaro and LeHuffPost combined (10.9M) and the second dataset (23M views) derives from the fact that the first dataset looked at the 500 most relevant YouTube Videos on Yellow Vests in France, and thus only • RT France has also uploaded more than twice as many videos (588) than Le taking into account 101 videos from RT France, arriving at 13M views within the top Monde, L’Obs, FRANCE 24, Le Figaro and LeHuffPost combined (256) 500 search queries from September 2018 to March 2019. The second dataset queried the entire RT France YouTube channels and retrieved a total of 588 videos for the query “Gilets jaunes”, arriving at a total of 23M views since September 2018. 24 25
6 THE SOLUTION: CORRECT In our view, Correct the Record would be Corrections work: Multiple peer-reviewed studies THE RECORD. a five-step process: have demonstrated that effective corrections can reduce and even eliminate the effects of disinformation. Additional studies 1. DEFINE: The obligation to correct the record disproved the theory of the “backfire would be activated when effect,” showed that corrections do Avaaz believes that the fake news surrounding the not entrench false beliefs and came • Independent fact-checkers verify that Yellow Vests has been especially impactful, because to the conclusion that corrections content is false or misleading; the vast majority of millions of French citizens work. Meanwhile, researchers are exposed to it have never been informed if they • A significant number of people, e.g. converging on best practices for have seen fake news, or seen factual corrections. 10,000, viewed the content. effective corrections like emphasizing Because even if content is fact-checked and found factual information while avoiding, to be untrue, Facebook only shows what they call whenever possible, repeating the “related articles” to a very small percentage of the 2. DETECT: platforms must original misinformation. users who have actually seen the fake news (mostly • Deploy an accessible and prominent people who shared or want to share the content). mechanism for users to report But the solution to this problem is simple: disinformation; Platforms must themselves work with fact- • Provide independent fact-checkers with checkers to “Correct the Record” by distributing access to content that has reached e.g. independent third party corrections to EVERY 10,000 or more people. To the right is a mock up suggestion SINGLE person who saw the false information of what the corrections could look in the first place. Newspapers publish corrections like on users’ timelines: 3. VERIFY: Platforms must work with on their own pages, television stations on their own independent, third-party, verified fact- airwaves; platforms should do the same on their checkers to determine whether reported own channels. No one else can do it. content is disinformation within 24 hours. Avaaz believes that Correct the Record is likely the most powerful action platforms can take ahead of the upcoming EU elections to restore the public’s 4. ALERT: Each user exposed to verified trust and to ensure the integrity of the elections. disinformation should be notified immediately It has been portrayed as a “radical new proposal using the platform’s most visible notification [that] could curb fake news on social media” by standard. TIME magazine. Governments protect consumers and participants 5. CORRECT: Each user exposed to in financial and energy markets from false and disinformation should receive a correction that misleading information, including by making it is of at least equal prominence to the original possible to issue corrections when disinformation content and that follows best practices, which could influence people’s decisions. We should could include: offer our democracies the same protections we • Offering reasoned alternative offer our markets. explanation, keeping the user’s worldview in mind; • Emphasizing factual information while avoiding, whenever possible, repeating the original misinformation; • Citing endorsement by sources the user is likely to trust. 26 27
ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz is a global citizens movement with over 50 million supporters in every country of the world, including about 20 million members in Europe. The research for this study was carried out by a team of investigative reporters, researchers, and data analysts set up by Avaaz to detect and deter disinformation ahead of the EU elections. Over the next few months, Avaaz members from across Europe will be working alongside this newly launched team to monitor disinformation operations across the European Union, help identify fake news and prevent their viral spreading, support in uncovering the networks driving it, and work with platforms and governments to correct false or misleading content and hold perpetrators accountable. Avaaz is aiming to provide more of such in-depth reports to inform the public and decision makers about the spread of disinformation across the continent. If you want to schedule an interview with one of Avaaz’s campaign directors or simply stay informed about further reports and investigations from our team - please get in touch with Julie Deruy: +33676477259 / julie@avaaz.org Andrew Legon: +447429865292 / andrew.legon@avaaz.org
12/03/2019
Annex - The 100 top fake news analyzed in this study Name of Video Views Shares Link to Fake news Link to Fact-Check https://observers.france24.com/fr/2 https://www.facebook.com/pa 0181203-emmanuel-macron-danse- t51343/videos/vb.100007099 il-alors-mouvement-gilets-jaunes-de 055800/2072455656334383/ bute?fbclid=IwAR0BgNafi_T-HSbU Macron dances while ?type=2&video_source=user 53vPSZtOIVtx4YYjywhN8wXODfhK France is protesting 5,700,000 183,392 _video_tab ypfB2nGtXh-qCHM https://web.archive.org/web/2 0181210110228/www.facebo ok.com/photo.php?fbid=1021 https://factuel.afp.com/non-gerard-l 7401146005830&set=a.1020 anvin-nest-pas-lauteur-dune-lettre-o Fake Gerard Lanvin 1689078253956&type=3&the uverte-anti-macron-tres-virale-sur-f letter 6,467,620 252,000 ater acebook https://factuel.afp.com/la-police-bor deaux-retire-son-casque-en-soutien Police officers taking -aux-gilets-jaunes-une-interpretatio https://www.facebook.com/be n-douteuse?fbclid=IwAR16c-pRvPI off their helmets - njamin.e.dupouy/videos/1021 wyGS48Tehpj-c7856YsrHSdQT0Pz Bordeaux 3,300,000 121,983 8125252782142/ qXI0hdjmo3uuLagoDtSI Police officers taking off their helmets allegedly in support https://www.facebook.com/gi of Yellow Vest no.glaco.5/posts/5435501028 https://www.facebook.com/afpfactu protesters - Pau 777,000 26,815 28676 el/posts/417881982085211 https://www.facebook.com/sn https://observers.france24.com/en/2 Fake police violence oirotetthielen/posts/19716360 0181129-debunked-videos-yellow-v pictures 3,511,456 136,818 99572802 ests-france-protests Mother stopped in the Netherlands as she allegedly didn’t https://www.facebook.com/mf https://factuel.afp.com/gilets-jaunes want to take off her amediagroup/videos/3815877 -acte-viii-le-ballet-des-vraies-et-faus yellow vest 1,300,000 31,915 19256076/ ses-informations Mother stopped in https://www.facebook.com/id the Netherlands as entitaitalianuova/videos/1960 she allegedly didn’t 103320710589/UzpfSTEwMz EyMzQ3OTQ6MTAyMTUyO https://factuel.afp.com/gilets-jaunes want to take off her TA5MDYwMzkxOTU/?__tn__ -acte-viii-le-ballet-des-vraies-et-faus yellow vest 676,000 21,616 =-R ses-informations https://twitter.com/AfpFactuel/status /1066992424361312256?fbclid=Iw https://www.facebook.com/ya AR2DqhCcUFpETKnaTBdFs9t8Pd Macron dances while nn.juarez/posts/28509526115 Xc-mHjU3Uuz_pnrh4X3SSCKe8Ue France is protesting 4,944,624 192,659 87557 _Ov5t8
https://www.facebook.com/ph Police allegedly oto.php?fbid=196905169654 8925&set=pb.100003323406 supporting Yellow 258.-2207520000.154444768 https://twitter.com/AfpFactuel/status Vest protesters 4,619,857 180,005 8.&type=3&theater /1066818934664511489 Video of police https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.f officers taking off r/occitanie/herault/montpellier/herau https://www.facebook.com/gr lt-melenchon-victime-infox-confond- their helmets - oups/283520695621830/per frontignan-bordeaux-chaleur-soutie Montpellier 4,468, 048 174,090 malink/293590931281473 n-1579669.html Police officers taking off their helmets allegedly in support https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/ https://www.facebook.com/An 2018/12/04/des-policiers-ont-ils-enl of Yellow Vest tiMacron/videos/3469978994 eve-leur-casque-face-aux-gilets-jau protesters - Pau 567,000 19,320 12658/ nes_1695952 Police officers taking off their helmets allegedly in support https://www.facebook.com/W https://factcheck.afp.com/police-taki arPlanPurple/videos/vb.8053 ng-their-helmets-support-yellow-ves of Yellow Vest 79166327747/568837880219 ts-misleading-interpretation-real-vid protesters - Pau 39,000 760 601/?type=2&theater eo Police officers taking off their helmets allegedly in support of Yellow Vest https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/23 https://www.facebook.com/En 88375-20181205-forces-ordre-elles protesters - Causee/videos/56690287707 -retire-casque-soutenir-gilets-jaune Bordeaux 17,000 550 9641/ s https://factuel.afp.com/hors-context e-anciennes-ou-faussement-legend Police beating https://www.facebook.com/w eestoutes-les-images-de-violences- students (outdated) 3,600,000 161,862 atch/?v=348619922581785 en-marge-du-mouvement Outdated police violences and https://www.facebook.com/gr allegedly being oups/298362254331895/per https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= erased 3,516,127 137,000 malink/317972172370903 qNvdpPHzniY Disobedience call https://www.20minutes.fr/societe/23 https://www.facebook.com/dj 82079-20181128-video-gilets-jaune from an alleged ohn.attend.5/videos/2139730 s-policier-vraiment-publie-videos-so policeman 3,900,000 248,867 536342642/ utien-mouvement Macron hired mercenaries; secret http://www.leparisien.fr/societe/gilet https://www.facebook.com/ni s-jaunes-les-mercenaires-de-macro services support cole.guegan.735/videos/2709 n-et-autres-intox-qui-pullulent-sur-fa Yellow Vest protests 3,500,000 135,169 389059285694/ cebook-05-12-2018-7961382.php
https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeu rs/article/2018/12/06/vendre-la-fran ce-a-l-onu-de-donald-trump-aux-gil ets-jaunes-l-itineraire-mondial-d-un e-intox_5393268_4355770.html?fbc https://www.facebook.com/ro lid=IwAR06HAH5kjMq5XITvN2a3H Marrakech Pact meo.piacquaddio/videos/143 ZdkVhIp-dx-RdjgZvndaXiF1zbuzaF conspiracy 3,100,000 108,617 0180387116830/ yCfBsfI Migration conspiracy https://news.konbini.com/societe/m https://www.facebook.com/m acron-va-vendre-la-france-le-pacte- - Macron is selling axime.nicolle/videos/1021769 de-marrakech-la-nouvelle-fake-new France to the UN 217,000 4,923 8440910128/ s-en-vogue https://factuel.afp.com/non-la-france Marine Le Pen -ne-va-pas-abandonner-sa-souverai speech on nete-migratoire-en-signant-un-pacte Marrakech Pact (FB -des-nations-unies?fbclid=IwAR2P https://www.facebook.com/gr H9HiPSbbi2UpEiNMRMlzlzwAPne group still active, oups/278399246342519/per SEvHqDA6s7SNFdrWkQrvCKFOrO need to be member) 1,770,896 69,000 malink/300627614119682 CM https://factuel.afp.com/non-la-france -ne-va-pas-abandonner-sa-souverai nete-migratoire-en-signant-un-pacte Marrakech Pact -des-nations-unies?fbclid=IwAR2P https://www.facebook.com/gr H9HiPSbbi2UpEiNMRMlzlzwAPne Conspiracy - MEP oups/278399246342519/per SEvHqDA6s7SNFdrWkQrvCKFOrO misinformation 1,000,000 56,858 malink/300627614119682 CM Marrakech Pact Conspiracy - https://factuel.afp.com/non-la-france Misinterpretation -ne-va-pas-abandonner-sa-souverai about the pact nete-migratoire-en-signant-un-pacte ("organizing total -des-nations-unies?fbclid=IwAR2P https://www.facebook.com/an H9HiPSbbi2UpEiNMRMlzlzwAPne migration from Africa nie.duzan/posts/2157874307 SEvHqDA6s7SNFdrWkQrvCKFOrO to France") 1,066,182 41,542 557657 CM Marrakech Pact conspiracy - says that the pact will https://factuel.afp.com/non-la-france promote immigration, -ne-va-pas-abandonner-sa-souverai institutionalize the nete-migratoire-en-signant-un-pacte right to migrate and -des-nations-unies?fbclid=IwAR2P https://www.facebook.com/ni H9HiPSbbi2UpEiNMRMlzlzwAPne encourage media colasdupontaignan/videos/51 SEvHqDA6s7SNFdrWkQrvCKFOrO censorship 905,343 40,225 1614106004087/ CM https://factuel.afp.com/non-la-france -ne-va-pas-abandonner-sa-souverai nete-migratoire-en-signant-un-pacte Marrakech Pact https://www.facebook.com/ph -des-nations-unies?fbclid=IwAR2P oto.php?fbid=211198205578 H9HiPSbbi2UpEiNMRMlzlzwAPne conspiracy - misc. 2206&set=a.1862137867433 SEvHqDA6s7SNFdrWkQrvCKFOrO misinformation 568,637 22,156 294&type=3&theater CM
https://factuel.afp.com/non-la-france -ne-va-pas-abandonner-sa-souverai https://www.facebook.com/M nete-migratoire-en-signant-un-pacte yleneTroszczynskiFN/videos/ -des-nations-unies?fbclid=IwAR2P pacte-de-marrakech-trahison- H9HiPSbbi2UpEiNMRMlzlzwAPne Misinformation about de-nos-%C3%A9lites/197409 SEvHqDA6s7SNFdrWkQrvCKFOrO the Marrakech Pact 86,000 5,624 6169347223/ CM https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeu rs/article/2019/01/31/dans-le-facebo ok-des-gilets-jaunes-le-vrai-du-faux -des-affirmations_5417270_435577 YV protest picture 0.html#episode_cette_image_montr https://www.facebook.com/gr ant_des_gilets_jaunes_rassembles being deliberately oups/1136704289828258/per _pres_de_larc_de_triomphe_a_t_ell deleted by Facebook 8,967,432 349,401 malink/1144241582407862 e_ete_censuree https://factuel.afp.com/non-la-france -ne-va-pas-abandonner-sa-souverai Conspiracy and nete-migratoire-en-signant-un-pacte disinformation about -des-nations-unies?fbclid=IwAR2P https://www.facebook.com/Li H9HiPSbbi2UpEiNMRMlzlzwAPne the Marrakech Pact gueDuMidi/videos/16134328 SEvHqDA6s7SNFdrWkQrvCKFOrO (post removed) 87,000 4,518 02089721/ CM https://www.facebook.com/43 https://www.franceculture.fr/geopolit UN plot to take over 1870643589953/posts/19213 ique/le-pacte-de-marrakech-provoq the world 6,057 236 40811309588 uera-t-il-une-invasion-migratoire UN planning the https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeu replacement of https://www.facebook.com/m rs/article/2018/12/06/vendre-la-fran onot.bernard/videos/3615535 ce-a-l-onu-de-donald-trump-aux-gil European population 17934236/?v=361553517934 ets-jaunes-l-itineraire-mondial-d-un by migrants 2,000,000 72,457 236 e-intox_5393268_4355770.html Police creating violence with https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economi undercover agents + e/transports/gilets-jaunes/on-a-pass missing license e-au-crible-les-rumeurs-relayees-pa https://www.facebook.com/m r-fly-rider-la-star-des-gilets-jaunes-d plates + migration axime.nicolle/videos/1021769 ont-les-videos-cartonnent-sur-faceb conspiracy 288,000 8,550 3779593598/ ook_3085529.html https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeu rs/article/2016/12/30/quels-pays-eur Untrue claim that opeens-remunerent-le-mieux-leurs- French MPs salary elus_5055895_4355770.html?fbclid https://www.facebook.com/gr =IwAR2cfuA6o14zjzwcQLuZE0aUB higher than in oups/310403819778193/per eWM1N2AYwYyXlboVYxc8hBfhAQ Germany 2,406,288 93,757 malink/342917016526873 Z0hwSH-M https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/faits- divers-justice/fausse-video-de-l-agr Picture of rugby ession-d-un-handicape-a-quimper-l supporters used for e-prefet-du-finistere-porte-plainte-1 https://twitter.com/AfpFactuel/ 542826305?fbclid=IwAR0FHiBoSF illustrating YV status/106428747588611276 AYEJU94YHw4bOKTLgOKV833Llx protest 2,277,655 88,745 8/photo/1 oG-1wc8X_wwP8RAS7B9G5Hk
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