Philippe Lagnier

Fifteen years ago, social networks were seen as a new democratic ferment that, by promoting the dissemination of information and horizontal communication between citizens, would help people break their chains, from Eastern Europe to the Arab world. The story is different: the assault on the Capitol by Donald Trump's supporters, the chaotic reign of his counterpart Jair Bolsonaro, the offensives targeting Muslims in Narendra Modi's India, or the dazzling success of the racist slogans of Italian League leader Matteo Salvini have highlighted the devastating power on a global scale of the calls to hatred and disinformation that circulate in real time on social media.

By invading this "state fiction" that is, according to him, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin takes up the motto of the tsars: "sovereign of all Russia, the great, the small and the white". The first would have Moscow as its capital, the second, kyiv, and the last, Minsk.

This investigative documentary looks behind the scenes of global populist movements, analyzes their online strategies and tracks down the "engineers of chaos": Computer scientists, pollsters and big data experts who secretly draw up battle plans for politicians. They have no scruples when it comes to helping their candidates to victory...

French current affair show