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Cybersecurity and Data Protection
PARIS — France’s interior minister vowed the country will take “legal action” after a government agency said it had uncovered evidence that an Israeli firm ran a disinformation campaign aimed at pro-Palestinian candidates during municipal elections in March.
Anne-Sophie Dhiver, the deputy head of Viginum — France’s agency for fighting online disinformation — told lawmakers Wednesday that “a private company based in Israel that specializes in selling online destabilization services” had “in particular” gone after candidates from the hard-left political party France Unbowed, which puts the Palestinian cause at the heart of its political agenda.
Dhiver added that Viginum couldn't identify who had sponsored the operation and said the disinformation attempts didn’t get much traction during the campaign.
