- VigiNum is dedicated to the detection and characterization of foreign media manipulation.
French gov. allocated to VigiNum an annual budget of 12 million euros, and an in-house expert workforce of 65, mostly comprising data scientists, social media analysts and a few geopolitics experts. Overall, almost a hundred people will contribute to VigiNum's missions, with the help of other ministries. The service will be led by a magistrate with experience in counterterrorism coordination, which indicates that it will act primarily as an interministerial coordination tool.
This model is reminiscent of the U.S.'s Global Engagement Center and of the U.K.'s National Security Communications Team.
France has long conducted psychological operations (PsyOps), and much of the doctrine's content was not a secret for well-informed readers.
When countering disinformation, the French government faces the same questions at home and abroad: where to draw the line and, most importantly, how to walk it.
