French PR Giant Havas Targeted US Lawmakers using State-backed Disinformation Campaign

In a revelation that exposes the dark underbelly of global public relations, French advertising titan Havas has been caught orchestrating a multimillion-dollar disinformation campaign against Gaza Crisis chief mediator nation, Qatar, a key Gulf nation. 

U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings from 2023 onward reveal a chilling operation, driven by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, designed to smear Qatar as a financier of extremism and a destabilizing force. 

This isn’t mere spin, it’s a calculated assault on sovereignty, manipulating narratives to sway policymakers and the public, while indirectly stalling peace talks in a warzone, prolonging conflict, and contributing to the deaths of innocent civilians.

The campaign, detailed in FARA disclosures, shows Havas Worldwide, netting $10-15 million annually, funneled through offshore entities to dodge scrutiny. 

Budgets allocated 40% ($4-6 million) to digital amplification via bot farms pushing hashtags like #QatarGate and #DohaTerror, 30% ($3-4.5 million) to influencer seeding, and the rest for staged protests, including paid rallies in Washington D.C. decrying Qatar’s “influence peddling.”

This time, Havas Media Group Germany was the central hub, subcontracting U.S. firms for a multi-pronged assault. Clock Tower X LLC, led by Donald Trump’s ex-campaign manager Brad Parscale, secured a $6 million contract through December 2025 to build “GPT framing” websites, fake sites injecting pro-Israel content into AI training data like ChatGPT, aiming to skew responses on Gaza and antisemitism. Bridges Partners LLC, owned by Israeli consultants Uri Steinberg and Yair Levi, received $900,000 for the “Esther Project,” paying 14-18 U.S. TikTok and Instagram influencers $6,100–$7,300 per post to flood platforms with 75–90 pieces of content promoting “cultural interchange” between the U.S. and Israel. Show Faith by Works LLC pocketed $325,881 for targeted Christian outreach in Western U.S. churches and colleges, disseminating materials framing Israel’s actions as defensive against “radicalism.” SKDKnickerbocker LLC, a Democratic-aligned firm, was initially hired for $600,000 to run a “bot-based program” amplifying pro-Israel posts on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, explicitly to “flood the zone” with automated content. 

A similar part to this scheme is the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), a think tank posing as academic but exposed as a propaganda tool. ISGAP, funded with over $5 million, 80% of its 2018 budget ($445,000) from Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs and grants from pro-Israel donors like the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, produced reports falsely tying Qatar’s $6 billion in U.S. university donations to “antisemitic curricula.” These skewed documents, fed to Congress, fueled hearings pressuring universities to cut ties with Doha, laundering raw intel into “evidence” of election meddling and protests. 

Havas’s sordid history amplifies the scandal. The firm has long served autocrats for profit, defending Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince post-Khashoggi murder, polishing the UAE’s image amid human rights abuses, and crafting propaganda for African and Asian dictators. 

This Qatar operation cements Havas as a modern SCL Group, deploying psychological warfare to mislead lawmakers and masses, undermining peace efforts by vilifying a key mediator in Gaza talks, thus prolonging violence and civilian deaths.

Amnesty International condemned the campaign’s Islamophobic undertones, linking it to anti-Arab sentiment amid Gaza’s crisis. U.S. lawmakers like Rep. Ilhan Omar demanded DOJ probes into FARA breaches, tweeting, “This is hybrid warfare on democracy.” Social media exploded with #HavasExposed trending at 2 million posts. Internal Havas leaks revealed whistleblowers, forcing CEO Yannick Bolloré’s vague “partnership review.” France’s Autorité de Régulation Professionnelle de la Publicité faces calls to curb these SCL-like services.

Israel’s parallel campaigns, like Stoic’s $2 million operation targeting U.S. Democrats with pro-military bots, as exposed by Meta and OpenAI in 2024, deepen the rot. Havas’s $2.5 billion empire, spanning 150 countries, thrives on impunity, from Olympics ads to UN campaigns. 

As 2025 extensions loom in filings, the question looms: How many more nations are targeted? This scandal demands France rein in Havas, lest disinformation derails peace and claims more lives.