"French shit", "Go die in hell big bitch", "dirty lesbian" ... A 16-year-old high school student named Mila, from Isère, was the target this week of a vast campaign of cyberbullying on social networks after making Islamophobic comments. "The Koran is a religion of hate […] Your religion is shit, your God I put my finger in my asshole, thank you goodbye", said the teenager in a video published on last weekend on Instagram.
Faced with the flood of insults and death threats received by the girl, the public prosecutor of Vienne (Isère) confirmed at 20 Minutes that he had opened two separate investigations. One to identify the authors of the “death threats”, entrusted to the gendarmerie, and the other for “provocation to racial hatred”, which targets the girl herself for her comments made on Instagram, the aim being to know "whether or not these fall under freedom of expression".
"Islam is shit"
It all started with a video posted on Saturday January 18 on social networks. The teenager exchanged live with her subscribers to share her passion for singing. An internet user then allegedly took her to task for "insisting on hitting on her". Cropped by Mila, openly lesbian, the young man would then have insulted him, accusing him of racism and Islamophobia. It was there that the girl began to criticize Islam, calling it "religion of hate" and "shit."
The video of this exchange quickly went viral. It has been relayed on other social networks, and has since been viewed more than a million times cumulatively. Several hashtags related to the teenager even ranked at the top of the "trending topics" this Wednesday, generating more than 100,000 tweets months 24 hours. But this video extract above all caused a torrent of insults and hatred against the teenager. In addition to the insults and the threats of death or rape, certain Net surfers revealed the identity of the young girl, her address, and even that of her high school. "I received 200 messages of pure hatred per minute," Mila told Checknews. "Someone even called my school pretending to be my father," added the teenager.
"A temporary dropout"
Faced with this wave of hatred, the girl had to be “out of school” this week, said the rectorate of Grenoble to 20 Minutes . “The principal of his establishment, located in northern Isère, made a report on Monday morning to the public prosecutor, and to the Pharos platform [national police service responsible for combating cybercrime]. The high school student, a second year student, did not show up for classes this week, ”said the services of the rectorate. Psychological care has also been put in place for the girl and her family with the help of the E-childhood association, a partner of the French Ministry of Education, which manages the platform for fighting cyberbullying Net listening.
“We were in contact with the schoolgirl and her parents to provide them with initial psychological help, reassure them and give them advice. They were caught in a phenomenon in which they were completely overwhelmed, ”explains Justine Atlan, president of the E-childhood association, to 20 Minutes . "All the operators have been contacted to have the illegal videos and content removed, and to stop the spread of rumors that harm the girl, who is only 16 years old. Our objective being to stop the virality of this business ”, adds the president of the association.
Debate around the “blasphemy offense”
Affected by the cyber harassment of which Mila was a victim, many Internet users wanted to support her this week with the hashtag #JeSuisMila. Most of them stress that blasphemy was not illegal in France. A position also supported by the patron of the National Rally. "The words of this young girl are the oral description of Charlie's caricatures, no more no less. We can find it vulgar, but we cannot accept that, for that, some people condemn it to death, in France, in the 21st century ”, tweeted Marine Le Pen.
The words of this young girl are the oral description of Charlie's caricatures, no more no less. We can find it vulgar, but we cannot accept that, for that, some people condemn it to death, in France, in the 21st century. MLPhttps: //t.co/bhlim7ch4o
- Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) January 22, 2020Other elected officials like Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Florian Philippot and Robert Ménard have also tweeted on this subject, invoking freedom of expression. Public figures such as the journalist Françoise Laborde and the philosopher Raphaël Enthoven also supported Mila. "Blasphemy is not a crime, but a work of public health," wrote the intellectual.
#JeSuisMila because our freedom is priceless and the madmen who dirty our country must be neutralized without any weakness.
- Florian Philippot (@f_philippot) January 22, 2020 #JeSuisMila
because blasphemy is not a crime, but a work of public health. pic.twitter.com/Ynd0CDijgJ
HASHTAG #JESUISPASMILA.
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