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Manipulation The Eiffel Tower was illuminated with the colors of Belarus and Russia flags

On June 4, 2023, the Georgian segment of Facebook disseminates information that the Eiffel Tower in France was illuminated with the colors of the Russian and Belarusian flags for 2 nights in a row. The message contains 2 photographs: on one the tower is highlighted in white, blue and red, and on the other - in green and red. This is manipulation. 

The fact-checkers of the Myth Detector project drew attention to the case. They determined that the photo of the Eiffel Tower in red and green colors was taken in 2016, and the colors themselves symbolize the flag of Portugal, not Belarus. During the UEFA European Champions League final, telecommunications company Orange launched a campaign in which it illuminated the Eiffel Tower in the colors of the participating countries that would get the most engagement on social media. Although Russia was one of the 24 participating teams, there is not a single mention in the media that the tower was illuminated in the colors of the flag of this country. As for the Russian flag, the fact-checkers found a photo of the tower in a Russian blog highlighted in red, white and blue, probably edited.

After all, along with the photo in the article, they called for special hashtags to be put on social networks so that the Eiffel Tower would be illuminated in the colors of the Russian flag. In June 2023, the Eiffel Tower was not highlighted in the color of any country - one can check this on social networks. As for the colors of the flags of other countries, the last time the Eiffel Tower was illuminated with the colors of the Ukrainian flag was on February 23, 2023, a year after the start of the Ukrainian-Russian war. By spreading such fakes, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit the West, sow discouragement among Ukrainian society and show that the support of international partners has allegedly weakened. Earlier, Detector Media talked about the manipulation that the West would stop supporting Ukraine if it failed the counteroffensive.

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