France is blaming the country’s bed bug scare on disinformation propagated by Russia.
Paris has been thrown into something of panic over fears that the city is in the midst of a bed bug plague, with insect infestations widespread and not slowing down.
The bugs even became a topic of debate in the country’s parliament, and the story had international repercussions when Algeria said it would take measures to ensure the pests weren’t spread to its territory.
But now French intelligence has said the real problem is Russian fake news propaganda.
“Frankly no,” Aldo Massaglia, who co-runs the Doggybug anti-pest company in Paris, recently told The Telegraph regarding an outbreak of bed bugs in the city. “We’ve been in the business for more than a decade and we’ve always been called to hotels, schools and cinemas.”
“People need to calm down or they’ll end up putting us back in lockdown at this rate! It’s as if someone was seeking to damage the reputation of the country before the Olympics,” he added.
Indeed, The Telegraph also reports, RMC radio has cited French intelligence agents, who told them they strongly suspect that Russia is seeking to amplify fears of bed bugs through so-called “doppelgänger” articles—fake articles that look like they come from respectable news outlets. RMC’s sources added that Russia didn’t initiate the panic but rather they “rode the wave” of reports of bed bug outbreaks as part of their “hybrid war” on the West.
AFP Factuel, the French news agency’s fact checking division, has also identified several fake articles, imitations of well-known media sites in the country. One article was translated into several languages.
In light of the evidence of Russian interference, Massaglia has good reason to urge for calm, as he has also experienced the consequences of the Russian info-attack personally. Requests for bed bug inspections are up 50%, he told The Telegraph.
