Saman Nazari, Alliance4Europe.
Rikard Friberg von Sydow, Södertörn University
This Flash report was made possible through a collaboration facilitated by the Counter Disinformation Network.
What is the ISAC?
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Note: this report contains un-archived links. We have found no reliable way to archive Facebook links.
Summary:
Between April 8th and May 24th, 2024, 5 unlabelled political ads were run targeting French users with anti-Ukraine, anti-Macron, and New California-related messages by the Facebook page Génération des patriotes. One of the ads was taken down by Facebook for “This ad ran without a required disclaimer” while the others were left running.
In total, the ads have managed to reach 61,708 users on Facebook and Instagram.
The two accounts administering the page are based in Burkina Faso and paid for the ads using USD, according to Facebook’s transparency centre.
It seems like the page is part of a wider network.
Page Description:
Génération des patriotes – a Facebook page directed at French patriots – has around 1800 followers (1). The page portrays itself as being created in France and posts mostly memes regarding French politics, including many posts concerning the EU elections and Ukraine (e.g. 2, 3, 4, 5).

Image 1: Example of a meme on the page (6).
The Génération des patriotes transparency centre page also states that the page was created as “Info.France” on October 12th, 2023, and changed its name to Génération des patriots the day after (7).
Image 2: Transparency page of Génération des patriotes.
The page likes two other pages (8). One belongs to an entrepreneur in Social media consulting, based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (Adama Sawadogo) (9). The other is Radio France International, which is a French state-owned radio channel, with a majority of its listeners in Francophone Africa.
Image 3: pages liked by Génération des patriotes.
The first two ads by Génération des patriotes were created during autumn 2023 and promote the page itself, stating “Stay informed of the latest news in France and around the world by subscribing to our page.” (“Restez informé(e) des dernières nouvelles en France et dans le monde entier en vous abonnant à notre page”) (10).
The second ad is still active and has reached around 17k Facebook users (11).
Image 4: Active ad.
The two first ads promoting the page itself have been paid for by a profile named Moussa Compaoré. There are several profiles and pages on Facebook using this name. One of the profiles using the name (12) regularly amplifies the content of the page of Adama Sawadogo, the social media consultant mentioned above (e.g. 13, 14, 15, 16).
Image 5: The Moussa Compaoré profile liking the Adama Sawadogo page.
While these are strong indicators that the page is affiliated with these two people, we cannot for confirm this with certainty using only Open Source Intelligence.
Advertisement activities
Since October 2023, the page has published seven ads, two promoting the page itself (17, 18) on Facebook and five unlabelled political ads (19, 20, 21, 22, 23) on Facebook and Instagram.
Two ads are memes regarding the French intervention in New Caledonia.
Image 6: Claiming that the “invasion was used by the French military to test the preparedness of soldiers, including those of African and Arab origin” (24),
Image 7: Claiming that the reason for the intervention was to secure French control over minerals needed to produce electric cars (25).
One ad features two demonstrators of African origin in France carrying signs claiming that “Macron is crazy” and “Stop the French mobilization” (26).
Image 8: image claiming “Macron is crazy” and saying “Stop the French mobilization”
Another two ads oppose a French intervention in Ukraine (27, 28).
Image 9: Ad translated “About sending tr**pes to *kra*ne :- M*cron endangers French populations who have not asked for anything and who are not on bad terms with anyone. No, we won’t send anyone to U-k**a*ne!
The text in the memes has been manipulated to hinder interventions from Facebook’s automated monitoring of ads of a political nature. The language used in the ads also contains grammatical mistakes that a native French speaker would not make.
The chosen geographical area for the ads are men and women in the age group 18-65+ who reside in France. The ads have somewhere between 2600 to 18,600 views. In total, the ads have managed to reach 61,708 users on Facebook and Instagram.
The main Beneficiary and payer of the ads is called “Mon Afrique”. Several accounts fit this description, but one stands out as being political. Claiming that its purpose is to “Agissons ensemble pour un changement positif et durable en Afrique” (“Let’s act together for positive and lasting change in Africa”), as well as posting a positive video regarding the former Gabon president Omar Bongo. The profile seems inactive (29). Mon Afrique has paid for at least four ads.
It could also be another page that shares the name “Mon Afrique”, as they are also liking the page Génération des patriotes (30). This page posts content painting Russia as a positive force in Africa (e.g. 31, 32), and once shared a false document (labelled by Meta) claiming that the Ukrainian embassy is recruiting volunteers in Côte d’Ivoire to join the war (33), one obfuscated image of a headline about France sending soldiers to Ukraine and New Caledonia (34), and another obfuscated image discrediting the USAID’s activities in Africa (35).
Objectives and Behaviours – DISARM Red Framework:
Likely Objectives:
– Smear – Trying to smear the French government’s reputation ahead of the European Parliamentary Elections.
– Dissuade from Acting – dissuade France from providing support to Ukraine.
– Divide – sow further division between France and New Caledonia.
The key behaviours displayed that made the case successful:
– Create Inauthentic Social Media Pages and Groups – The creation of a page posing as French patriotists while being operated from Burkina Faso.
– Recruit Contractors – While we do not know who is behind the page, it seems like they hired a contractor/consultant in Burkina Faso to run it for them.
– Deliver Ads – The operation relied on delivering ads to attract audiences and deliver their operational content.
– Manipulate Platform Algorithm – The ads and posts of the page are using obfuscation of text to avoid Meta’s automated content moderation.
Recommendation:
Action taken: Flagged case to Meta and European Governments.
Meta’s Transparency Centre for ads should also include a link to the profile that made the payment – not just the name of the profile.
Further investigations should be made to understand the wider network this page is likely a part of.