In this paper, we study the oscillation of the impulsive Riemann–Liouville fractional differential equation $$\begin{aligned} {\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} [r(t)D_{ t_k^+}^\alpha x(t)]'+q(t)f\left( d+\int _{t_k^+}^t(t-s)^{-\alpha }x(s)ds\right) =0,\quad t\in (t_k,t_{k+1}],\ k=0,1,2\ldots ,\\ \frac{1}{d}{D_{t_{k}^+}^\alpha x(t_k^+)}-\frac{D_{t_{k-1}^+}^\alpha x(t_k^-)}{d+\int _{t_{k-1}^+}^{t_{k}^-}(t_{k}^--s)^{-\alpha }x(s)ds}=-b_k,\ \ k=1,2,\ldots \ \end{array}\right. } \end{aligned}$$Philos-type oscillation criteria of the equation are obtained. We are interested in finding adequate impulsive controls to make the fractional system with Riemann–Liouville derivatives oscillate. An example of the change from non-oscillation to oscillation under the impulsive conditions is found.