cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/35443153
The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has filed a lawsuit over forged versions of its covers, it announced on its website Monday.
“Fake ‘covers’ are appearing online that mimic the magazine’s style and shamelessly use the signatures of our artists. Who’s behind this deception? We don’t know yet, which is why we’ve filed a complaint against an unknown party. All these clumsy forgeries have one thing in common: they smear Ukraine, mock Europe’s and France’s support for [Ukrainian] President Volodymyr Zelensky, and sometimes spread rumors about [France’s First Lady] Brigitte Macron’s gender identity. You start to wonder whether Putin himself commissioned them,” the magazine said.
In its statement of claim, Charlie Hebdo says that over the past two years, at least 15 fake covers of the magazine have been posted on Telegram and X, accompanied by Russian-language captions and commentary. According to the editorial team, the forgeries are aimed at a Russian-speaking audience and are intended to create the impression that Charlie Hebdo supports Vladimir Putin.
“This is almost an industrial-scale operation that’s gaining momentum — there are now numerous fake covers, many of them very well made. There’s clearly an intent behind this, and it strongly resembles pro-Russian propaganda,” said Richard Malka.
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