00:00No, the head of France's intelligence agency has not resigned.
00:07Claims that the head of France's domestic intelligence agency, Céline Berton, resigned
00:11emerged online and gained traction over the summer.
00:14Users relayed screenshots of an article which they alleged was published by French newspaper
00:18Le Monde in late July.
00:20Some posts on X garnered more than 200,000 views, while the allegations also appeared
00:25on LinkedIn posts and online blogs.
00:28And users claimed Berton was forced to resign after the intelligence agency she helmed was
00:33found to have enabled illicit cryptocurrency operations, which eventually threatened the
00:38collapse of the euro.
00:39Users also alleged that these so-called untraceable funds could be used by the French state to
00:44crack down on protests, such as the mass demonstrations expected in the autumn.
00:49They based their claims on reporting by Le Monde and the AFP agency, but these screenshots of
00:54the article are fake, neither media ever published these claims.
00:58Disinformation actors assert the article has since been suspiciously deleted, but Euroverify
01:03did not detect any evidence that Le Monde ever published this article.
01:07Céline Berton took office in January 2024 and has not resigned.
01:12Initially, when users clicked on the story on social media, it directed them to an online
01:17phishing scam.
01:18But over the course of the summer, the scam disappeared with the fake news about Berton's
01:22resignation becoming the centerpiece.
01:24The disinformation was shared on the Kremlin-aligned Pravda network.
01:28It was also posted on a blog run by Frenchman Cyril Delattre, who lives in Russia and appears
01:34on Russian state TV as a commentator.
01:37This is not the first time that French intelligence services have been targeted by Russian disinformation
01:42campaigns.
01:43Céline Berton has previously spoken out about the threats that Russia poses to French democracy,
01:48as well as the need to question claims on social media.
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