False accounts, fake news, insults ... A few hours before the end of this very special 2020 municipal campaign, the time has come. Deprived of towing on the markets and door to door, it is on social networks that it is done for many candidates the bulk of the work. But the traditional ring of politics has nothing to envy to the internet jungle, where under cover of pseudo-anonymity, all blows are allowed.
>> Find all of Nathalie Levy's programs in replay and podcast here
51 false accounts in Sète, a homophobic post in Toulouse
This is particularly seen in Sète, in Hérault, where Facebook had to intervene to close 51 false accounts. And the social network is not the only one since Instagram, which belongs to the same group, has closed "nine pages and nine accounts in the region," reports Franceinfo . Figures that do not take into account the real accounts that have engaged in real smear campaigns with hateful content, or fake news, all while posing as local media.
Another example in Toulouse, where a collaborator of the municipal majority of center-right of Toulouse was laid off for having published in the night of Thursday to Friday on Facebook of the remarks in homophobic character targeting the environmental candidate for the town hall.
More present, or more visible violence?
But should we deduce that social networks have transformed the campaign into a battlefield? Not necessarily according to Fabienne Greffet, specialist on these questions at the University of Lorraine, who points out the role of the health context of the coronavirus: "The fact that the campaign has moved to social networks will produce an ability for hostile groups to react more, and to be much more visible. " A noisy minority who therefore takes precedence over a silent majority, the phenomenon is far from new on social networks or video sharing sites like Youtube.
Facebook fights drift
However, this remains a drift that Facebook claims to fight to "protect the integrity of the elections" by deleting these false accounts and other fake news, or by reducing the visibility of the offending publications. The social network also conducts its own surveys based on user reports, or by studying their behavior. Especially when a new user behaves the opposite of what a novice would do, immediately posting dozens of messages.