There have been at least six fake covers of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo circulating online, especially on Russian Telegram channels, over the past six months. And Charlie Hebdo isn’t the only magazine targeted— fake covers of numerous international media outlets have also been circulating online since the start of the war in Ukraine. The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke to an independent Russian media outlet that investigated these fake covers being posted.
On November 28, the FRANCE 24 Observers team noticed an image of a fake cover of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo circulating on Twitter along with a caption in English that said, “France: Nazism is associated with Ukraine. Charlie Hebdo rolled out a special issue about the adventures of Ukrainian Nazis in Qatar. It’s a satire on the recent incident in Doha, where 3 drunken tourists painted Hitler's moustache on the symbol of the World Cup.”
