Paris (AFP)

Tipeee, Ulule, Litchee, etc.

: online jackpots are popular with creators of all kinds to finance their projects.

If the contents are for the most part harmless, some are nevertheless used to disseminate false information or sulphurous theses, difficult to identify upstream.

Since Thursday, a lively controversy has developed in France around the release of the documentary "Hold-Up", which intends to demonstrate "the global manipulation company" surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.

Several political leaders of the majority and various observers condemned "conspiracy propaganda".

And in fact, this documentary unfolds an argument riddled with at least thirty false statements, according to the verification work of the AFP Factuel team.

Funded by online jackpots and officially released on the internet on Wednesday, this 2:40 film brings together a galaxy of skeptics and experts of all kinds who vigorously attack the measures taken against the Covid-19 crisis, until the final explanation of a global conspiracy.

To date, this documentary has already collected more than 182,000 euros in donations on the crowdfunding platform Ulule and monthly pledges for an amount of 125,000 euros from some 6,000 Internet users on the Tipeee platform.

And on social networks, the film has already been seen hundreds of thousands of times and widely relayed.

- "Euphemized" sales argument -

The founder and leader of Ulule Alexandre Boucherot disavowed the project Thursday on Twitter by denouncing a "standard of conspiracy theses".

"All the projects are moderated before they are launched on Ulule. This is precisely to prevent projects from the fascosphere, complosphere, etc. from happening," he explained.

Problem, this type of project generally uses the same operating mode to bypass the moderation of online platforms: "a pitch (sales argument, Editor's note) + euphemized + which allows moderation to pass, then a radicalization of the subject during the campaign, ”added Boucherot.

However, "this is what happened, from our humble point of view, with Hold-Up. The initial pitch was mainly positioned on the mode" other voices are possible ", and the subject became politicized over time. as the campaign progressed. With the success that we know (...) We quickly realized that it went beyond the supposed initial framework (the pluralism of voices) to become a banner of very conspiratorial theses. far from what is defended on Ulule ", hammered the leader, who pledged to" transfer the entire commission received (by the site) to an association for the defense of information ".

Contacted by AFP, Ulule replied in writing that he did not wish to express himself further, "because we believe that any publication or mention of this subject plays into the hands of this conspiratorial film by giving it an echo".

- Withdrawal from the Vimeo platform -

"Funding platforms are often fooled by the file opening the pot", supports Tristan Mendès France, associate lecturer at the University of Paris and who is piloting the Stop Hate Money project of the conspiracy observatory.

According to him, "Ulule tries to make a qualitative and editorial sorting while Tipeee accepts a priori anything and everything", and in particular the projects of "the main conspiracy movement Qanon in France".

"As long as they are not condemned by justice, they have a maximalist posture", presents Mr. Mendès France.

Asked by the BFM Tech channel, Tipeee founder Michael Goldman said the documentary Hold-Up would be examined by the moderation teams "by the end of the week".

Friday, a message on the pot, still open, warned of a "large number of reports about potential false information."

However, the documentary is no longer offered for sale on Vimeo, which deleted it for violating its rules on the dissemination of false information.

Facebook, which hosted copies, for its part reduced their virality and added verification articles for context.

On Twitter, the film crew denounced "unacceptable censorship" and posted the film for free access on the decentralized Odysee platform, launched in mid-September with the commitment of minimal moderation.

© 2020 AFP