The public prosecutor’s office in Paris has opened an investigation into the possibility of foreign interference by an Israeli company in the French municipal elections, following a disinformation campaign targeting several candidates from the radical left wing France Unbowed party.

The investigation concerns operations carried out during the municipal elections in March against three candidates from the movement: Sebastien Delogu in Marseille in the south, Francois Piquemal in Toulouse in the southwest, and David Guiraud in Roubaix in the north.

The charges under investigation include criminal association with a foreign power, manipulating voters through false information or fraudulent tactics, and glorifying terrorism online, in view of certain slogans that were used.

A worker holds a ballot during the first round of municipal elections at a polling station in Marseille

According to the candidates, they were targeted by defamation campaigns combining false accusations, fake electoral images, and manipulation on social media platforms.

Sebastien Delogu told journalists last Wednesday in Paris: “You drive your car and see a billboard with your name and a QR code leading to false accusations of rape.”

Francois Piquemal spoke about “the creation of social media pages promoting the worst rumors,” the “leaking” of passwords to his accounts on these platforms, as well as fake campaign images, even on the online marketplace platform Vinted.

Piquemal asked last Wednesday in front of journalists, surrounded by his lawyer: “Has the far right Israeli network stolen the municipal elections in Toulouse?”

This smear campaign was carried out from Israel, according to a source familiar with the case who recently spoke to Agence France Presse, while the French newspaper Liberation and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported the involvement of two companies based in the Jewish state.

The candidates believe they were targeted because of their support for the Palestinian cause.

The judges particularly reviewed posts from Viginum, the agency responsible for combating this type of online manipulation, which referred to an “artificial or automated system for disseminating clearly inaccurate or misleading content.”

Viginum added that “this malicious campaign involving an actor located abroad could harm the fundamental interests of the nation, as it deliberately seeks to alter citizens’ information.”

The judges also reviewed press articles pointing to the company Black Cube, based in Tel Aviv in Israel, as being behind these actions.

However, the public prosecutor’s office recalled that the concept of interference does not concern the interests of a private individual or a foreign company, but the interests of a foreign state, and it has not been notified of any suspicion of such interference.

The investigation has been referred to the national unit for combating cybercrime.