Made in Lebanon: Social Media Account Tied to Pro-Hezbollah Media Backs French Protests

As French protests escalated, the X account Torche360 (@Torche360), on October 26, posted a video of a protester in Paris unfavorably comparing French police to the Israel Defense Forces. The account provides no information about its operators, but a Lebanese production firm with employees who have ties to Hezbollah-aligned, and even Hezbollah-owned media, appears to run Torche360, as per an employee’s disclosure on LinkedIn. The individuals involved with Blue House Films, the Lebanese production firm apparently behind Torche360, have longstanding ties to pro-Hezbollah and Hezbollah-owned media. The post’s reach was modest, but it illustrates a more concerning dynamic: a media brand linked to Hezbollah’s information ecosystem is inserting itself into France’s domestic unrest. Location Data and Preliminary Leads The first clue that the operators of the French-language X account are likely not in France came from X’s transparency features, which geolocated the account to West Asia. Torche360’s Facebook account provides more granular detail, showing that 8 out of 10 of the account’s managers are based in Lebanon (the others being in Georgia and the United Arab Emirates). X transparency features geolocating account operators to West Asia and showing they connected via the regional app store in West Asia (left); Facebook transparency features showing 8 out of 10 of Torche360’s managers based in Lebanon (right). Torche360’s X, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram accounts, however, do not appear to provide information about who owns or operates it. However, the LinkedIn account of Ghada Saad, a woman appearing in Torche360’s videos, calls “the French Platform ‘Torche360,’ part of ‘Blue House Film’ productions,” a Beirut production firm. She is a content creator for the outlet, according to her LinkedIn profile, and previously held roles at Al Mayadeen, a media outlet referred to by the Times of Israel as pro-Hezbollah and by Reuters as pro-Iranian. Individual describing Torche360 as “part of” Blue House Film on her LinkedIn. Connections to Sanctioned Hezbollah- and Iran-affiliated Entities Lebanese commercial registry records state that journalist Radwan Mortada owns 90 percent of Blue House SAL, the corporate entity associated with Blue House Film. Mortada previously worked for the pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar and appeared on Hezbollah’s television channel Al Manar, which the United States designated as a terrorist entity in 2006 for being owned or controlled by Hezbollah. Mortada also directed “The Emerald Resistance: Ireland’s Voice for Palestine,” a documentary produced by the Iranian state-run outlet Press TV that examined Irish solidarity with the “Axis of Resistance,” a network of Iran-backed groups operating across the Middle East. Blue House Film itself has worked with Press TV, which the United States has also sanctioned because it is owned by Iranian state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). According to Blue House Film’s website, the company collaborated with Press TV to produce a documentary series in Iraq, featuring interviews with political and security officials. In July 2025, Mortada and Blue House Film’s managing partner, Mostapha Wehbi, joined 13 other international media figures on an IRIB-organized visit to Iran to document damage from Israeli airstrikes. Mortada and Wehbi cofounded another media brand, known as Al-Mahatta. New York-based political risk and due diligence analyst Rany Ballout described Al-Mahatta as “Hezbollah’s New Digital Mouthpiece” in 2023, although Mortada has publicly disputed this allegation and threatened lawsuits. Pro-Hezbollah Sympathies and Anti-Israel Narrative Hijacking Torche360’s content occasionally displays overt pro-Hezbollah sympathies. On February 22, 2025, for example, Torche360 posted a video calling the deceased former head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, an “emblematic leader against colonialism.” Torche360’s X post on February 22, 2025, praising Hassan Nasrallah. Blue House Film’s website also advertises projects with the Qatari state media brand Al Jazeera, and the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA). In addition to the X post comparing the French police to the IDF, Torche360 placed at least 23 additional posts on X alone sympathetic to the protests between September 1 and October 26, 2026. Among various posts sympathetic to the protestors, Torche360 posted content claiming that the French government fears its people and that the media fixates on looting rather than police violence. The account also publicized plans from France’s Yellow Vest movement for protests on October 24, possible further demonstrations on October 31, and a November 5 strike. Other Torche360 posts attempt to inject anti-Israel narratives into the protests. For example, Torche360 suggested that French authorities were seeking Israeli intelligence assistance to monitor civilians amid the protests. Torche360 X post implying that French authorities were seeking Israeli intelligence assistance to monitor civilians amid the protests. Torche360 also interviewed Thomas Portes, a French politician, multiple times in October. He supports the protests and criticizes France’s relationship with Israel. Porte is part of the French left wing affiliated with La France Insoumise (LFI), the party founded by Jean-Luc Melenchon. Although Torche360’s published posts on X do not identify the interviewer by name, facial recognition software suggests she is Mona Hammoud-Elhor, a French-Lebanese journalist who previously worked as a reporter and news anchor for RT France, the Russian-funded broadcaster, from October 2016 to January 2021. Torche360 similarly conducted at least two interviews with Belgian Member of the European Parliament Marc Botenga, a member of the far-left Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) and The Left, a coalition within the European Parliament. In one interview, Botenga criticized U.S. support for Israel and European policies toward Gaza, advocating for sanctions and an arms embargo against Israel. Torche360’s posts about the protest appear to get modest engagement. As of this writing, its most viewed X post (the October 26 post) only has 709 views. As of that same day, the Torche360 account on X only has 185 followers. Its other platforms appear dramatically more popular, with 43,000 followers on Facebook, 30,400 on Instagram, and 21,600 subscribers on YouTube. Hezbollah carried out a wave of terrorist bombings in Paris in the 1980s and bombed the French Embassy in Kuwait in 1985. A social media brand that frames Hezbollah’s leader in a favorable light may violate France’s rules against apology for terrorism. It is unclear if Torche360 is violating this law or any relevant French law; however, this deserves scrutiny due to Torche360’s favorable post about Nasrallah, in addition to the fact that employees who work at Blue House Films (which appears to run Torche360) have historical ties to Hezbollah-aligned and Hezbollah-owned media outlets. The French people should also know that a media brand with ties to a pro-Hezbollah media ecosystem is trying to shape narratives surrounding the ongoing protests in their country. Max Lesser is a senior analyst on emerging threats at the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). Ahmad Sharawi is a senior research analyst at FDD. For more analysis from the authors and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_CCTI. Follow Ahmad on X @AhmadA_Sharawi. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.