Blogger challenges DisinfoLab NGO over Twitter users data abuse in ‘French Russophiles’ study

The NGO behind the infamous ‘Russophiles’ study has denied their research featured French users’ private data. The blogger who posted the data, however, insists they wiped the files that originally included sensitive information.

France’s Twittersphere has been on fire since previously unknown EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels-based organization that says its mission is to “fight disinformation with innovative methodology” and receives money from Twitter and George Soros, issued a report about 55,000 “hyperactive” twitter accounts that had spread the news of the so-called Benalla affair.

READ MORE: 'Hyperactive French Russophiles’ study lands Soros-backed DisinfoLab in Twitter data abuse scandal

Some users tweeting on Emmanuel Macron’s very own ‘Watergate’ scandal exposing the French president’s protester-beating bodyguard Alexandre Benalla, were labeled as ‘Russophiles.’ DisinfoLab even explained that a ‘Russophile’ is a user who shares “publicly and regularly articles from RT and Sputnik, which are state-funded Russian media” and who promotes “the pro-Russian narrative.”

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French politicians such as Jean-Luc Melenchon of La France Insoumise and Marine Le Pen from the National Rally (NR, formerly Front National) were among many who found their names in the EU DisinfoLab database released alongside the report.

Among screenshots of the database circulating on Twitter, several showed a column in which the description of the user profiles were present.

READ MORE: Jewish, Gay, Russophile? EU DisinfoLab risks probe over abuse of French Twitter users’ data

One such screenshot was released by blogger Olivier Berruyer, the founder of Les Crises (The Crises) blog in which he presents his opinions on geopolitics and economic problems. Berruyer followed the EU DisinfoLab report from the release.

These intimate characteristics look like excerpts from users’ own Twitter bios: “Jew born in France,”“Queer, gay, Antifa”, “I am a lesbian.” Berruyer claimed that the files were distributed by one of the authors of the contentious report, Nicolas Vanderbiest August 5.

Responding to the criticism of their bulk collection of arguably private Twitter user data, EU DisinfoLab released a statement to the media on Saturday, saying that it has “noticed that a screenshot is currently circulating” on social media, “supposedly related to one of the files we have inadvertently released.” The group insisted that “none of these supposed user bios are coming from any of our files.” The NGO said that this may be easily verified “by simply searching” the now-deleted files. It explained that the user locations “were not part” of the files they released and the first file –with 55,000 handles of the Twitter users– only included those “who tweeted on the subject and the number of tweets and retweets they produced.”

Yet Berruyer, whose Les Crises blog has almost 30,000 followers, insists that the files with bio details were included in the report and that the screenshots he shared were genuine – but the originals have since been wiped by the report’s authors. He released links to several accounts which also posted screenshots with the Twitter biography information, allegedly present in the original files shared by the NGO.

In response to his plea on Twitter to further corroborate his research, another user posted a screenshot that he saved from Vanderbiest’s account.

On Friday Vanderbiest himself expressed his apologies to those negatively affected by the publication of the document. However, in a lengthy statement, Brussels-born Vanderbiest says that he believes that “any data on Twitter is public data” and that there was no “personal intervention” in the report. "I am passionate, too. I am neither a fascist nor a spook,” he insists.

The scale of response of those who found themselves among those 55,000 was quite enormous. The Twitterati began releasing screen grabs of their handles, making fun and taking pride in being ‘Russophiles.’ Some changed the names of their accounts into numbers by which they were listed by the NGO. Others went even further and renamed their accounts in Russian: “Лемаркич matricule 31884,” “Franck Noir  Чёрный Франк – Opposant N°2045.”

Politicians Jean-Luc Melenchon and Marine Le Pen were upset to find themselves on an apparent blacklist.

In the meantime, France’s National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) confirmed that it received numerous complaints from Internet users who are worried about being listed by the NGO.

Alexandre Alaphilippe, a director at EU DisinfoLab, told RT that the study never intended to detect “Russian meddling” in the Benalla scandal. “We never said this. The fact that lawmakers or the government spokesperson immediately exploited this for political ends, created a sort of hype that was never the object of our study,” he said.

READ MORE: Controversial French report on ‘Russophiles’ funded by Twitter with profits from RT ads

However, independent journalist Luc Rivet told RT that the NGO (which was created in December 2017) is not an innocent neutral, but rather the respectable face of the ongoing information war – with Russia as the target. “DisinfoLab is the embryo of the propaganda machine of the EU. And many nationally-oriented politicians will be furious with these revelations,” he said.

It was also quite ironic that the NGO was partially funded by Twitter itself, with money it earned from RT and Sputnik, as the report’s author admitted themselves. 

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