INTERVIEW
Since the start of confinement to try to stem the coronavirus epidemic, the French can no longer leave their homes, but can still wander on social networks. And for a month, online hatred has been more visible, to the point that Marlène Schiappa, Secretary of State responsible for Equality between women and men and the fight against discrimination, brings together several platforms this Thursday (Twitter, Facebbok, Google) and associations (Respect Zone, the Association of Young Chinese in France, SOS Homophobia, SOS Racisme, UEJF, Licra and CRIF).
Guest of Philippe Vandel in Culture Médias on Europe 1, François Jost, semiologist and author of La Méchanceté en Actes et Médias: emerging from hatred, returned to this situation. He says he "doesn't know if confinement makes us meaner", but believes "the opposition is extremely strong".
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"It's almost a law of social psychology"
François Jost cites that "between Parisians and people who are in the provinces, who find that Paris is too highlighted". But also that "between those who 'work hard' and those who 'do not work hard' like writers or the liberal professions".
The semiologist takes the wave of hatred that followed the publication of Leïla Slimani's "confinement journal" as an example, where she recounts her daily confinement. "In this kind of situation where we do not understand very well where the virus comes from and how it works, we need to attack the other. It is almost a law of social psychology. a kind of group against known people and people who are on social networks and who put themselves forward, "said François Jost.
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An opposition between the elite and the people
Asked about the case of Karine Lacombe, infectious disease specialist who had to leave social networks after being insulted because she had openly criticized the theses of Professor Didier Raoult, François Jost also saw several oppositions there. Karine Lacombe "attacks Professor Raoult who is from Marseille and we have a very strong opposition between the province and Paris (...). It also represents the rationality of science, and many people want to believe in things which have not necessarily been demonstrated but which are apparently effective ", explains François Jost. "It is an opposition against a scientific institution".
For him, these various cleavages, materialized by tweets and interposed messages, show that online hatred is "following yellow vests by other means". "I said in my book that hatred on Twitter was the class struggle by other means. I had the confirmation with a huge poster which had been disseminated at the beginning of the confinement where it is written that the romanticization of the quarantine is a class privilege, "says the semiologist.
Quarantine at two speeds: rest and leisure for some, precariousness and health risk for others.
[photo v / @ perifericah] pic.twitter.com/3D55YSi8e1
"We can clearly see that we have this opposition which continues, which is expressed differently now, but which is the same between the elite and the people".
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"On the internet, we will not forget"
If the examples cited above have caused controversy and a flood of insults as soon as they were published, other videos or articles are exhumed by certain users of Twitter or Facebook to attack a public figure. This was the case for Yves Calvi, who in L'info du réel of March 12, 2020 claimed that the nursing staff "whined".
Words that shocked .... A month later. For François Jost, this is a shining example of the difference between hate online and hate in general: memory on the internet. "We will look for phrases sometimes very early (...) With this idea that on the internet, we will not forget and that we will pay on the day of the 'big night'," concludes the semiologist.