Russia ‘used Facebook to spy on Macron’

RUSSIAN intelligence agents attempted to spy on Emmanuel Macron’s election campaign earlier this year by creating phoney Facebook personas, according to a US congressman and two other people briefed on the effort.

About two dozen Facebook accounts were created to conduct surveillance on Macron campaign officials and others close to the centrist former financier as he sought to defeat the far-right’s Marine Le Pen and other opponents in the two-round election, the sources told Reuters. Mr Macron won in a landslide in May.

Facebook said in April it had taken action against fake accounts that were spreading misinformation about the French election. But the effort to infiltrate the social networks of Macron officials has not been reported.

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the election. US intelligence agencies told Reuters in May that hackers with connections to the Russian government were involved, but they did not have evidence that the Kremlin ordered the hacking.

Facebook confirmed to Reuters that it had detected spying accounts in France and deactivated them.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the accusations as “a lie and not true”.