A new report by a French government agency has accused Azerbaijan of manipulating online users in France’s overseas constituencies and Corsica.
In a new report published on December 2, France’s technical agency responsible for monitoring foreign digital interference, VIGINUM, released findings about the Baku Initiative Group (BIG), a state-sponsored organization based in Azerbaijan.
From July 2023 to October 2024, VIGINUM observed BIG-linked social media accounts disseminating content “with an editorial line that is resolutely hostile to France.”
These campaigns exploited events such as the riots in New Caledonia in May, 2024.
On the basis of the data collected on the various X accounts involved, VIGINUM confirmed that these various attempts used artificial amplification procedures, the agency added.
BIG’s tactics then evolved to promote the signing of memoranda with French overseas territories’ independence parties while enhancing ties with pan-African spheres.
VIGINUM said that this was most likely in response to X’s suppression of most of the group’s relay accounts.
BIG therefore sought to take advantage of subscriber communities possessed by certain self-proclaimed pan-African influencers to better promote its activities and attempt to strengthen, without any real success, the dissemination of its narratives against France, read the report.
However, VIGINUM concluded that BIG “was unable to attain the visibility it probably expected among the people living in overseas French constituencies and Corsica.”
The report summarized that, despite not achieving its objectives, BIG can be considered “a state propaganda outlet working against France, whose strategy is to instrumentalize public debate in overseas France to serve the objectives of Azerbaijan’s foreign policy.”