Fake news stories designed to imitate the appearance and reporting style of established media outlets have been increasing across Europe since the beginning of the year, particularly ahead of elections, according to NewsGuard, which attributes many of the operations to Russia-linked networks.
In France alone, 85 fake stories connected to the country’s presidential election, scheduled for spring 2027, have been published since the summer, NewsGuard said.
“Russian campaigns are intensifying ahead of elections. In the case of France, this began nine months before the vote. That is very early,” the organization said.
NewsGuard said it has identified 906 fake stories since 2022 that were falsely presented as content published by legitimate media organizations. The phenomenon increased during the first half of 2026, according to the organization.
European Media Increasingly Targeted
NewsGuard is monitoring 561 websites that have spread false information about the war in Ukraine, including 62 French-language websites. It said it has identified more than 450 false claims related to the conflict.
According to the organization, European media outlets have been particularly targeted, potentially because of their countries’ support for Ukraine.
Eight French media organizations are among the 15 outlets whose identities have been most frequently impersonated.
Euronews tops the list, with 82 fake stories identified between March 2023 and September 2026, followed by French newspaper Libération with 39, Charlie Hebdo with 35 and Agence France-Presse with 20.
Other outlets targeted by similar operations include the BBC, Germany’s Deutsche Welle and Brussels-based Politico.
Fake Websites and AI-Generated Content
According to NewsGuard, the campaigns copy the logos and branding of established media outlets and, in some cases, create websites with addresses designed to resemble those of legitimate news organizations.
The fabricated content has included false narratives, allegations involving child pornography, and threatening or offensive statements, among other claims, with the stated objective of undermining public trust in legitimate media.
NewsGuard primarily attributes the operations to the pro-Russian networks known as Matryoshka and Storm-1516.
The organization said the spread of such campaigns has been facilitated by advances in generative artificial intelligence, which make it easier to produce convincing fake videos and fabricated news articles.
NewsGuard is an international company that assesses the reliability and credibility of news and information websites and focuses on combating online misinformation, fake news and propaganda.
