Paris (AFP)
Death threats, degrading photomontages, "despicable" messages but most often impunity: victims of cyberstalking tell AFP their confrontation with online hatred and their difficulties in seeing their complaints succeed.
- "A feeling of impunity" -
Aurélia Gilbert, 48, survivor of the Bataclan attacks, was cyber-harassed this summer for supporting the repatriation of French children of jihadists on Twitter.
“Some comments under a tweet said“ too bad we missed it. ”During the night my Twitter account was hacked, someone deleted my tweet and posted my phone number calling me a“ traitor to the nation ” . It was not the first time but the limit has been crossed. This kind of call can be followed by people who are not always stable.
I filed a complaint at the beginning of September but I was informed a few days ago that my complaint was dismissed because the investigators were unable to find the people who had threatened me.
They told me that Twitter had not transmitted the material.
There is a feeling of impunity for the platform, it is quite unpleasant in a state of law.
Twitter must choose between its harassed users and the harassers.
For me they took a stand by supporting the stalkers. "
- "Despicable messages" -
Chantal Perrichon, president of the League against road violence, has been a victim of cyberstalking regularly for nearly ten years for her positions.
"It began in 2011 during a reform of the recovery of driver's license points. Since then it has never stopped. The car, everyone knows that it mobilizes passions. Attacks that are focused on women, because it is well known that they do not know how to drive.
I have the right to constant harassment on social networks, to an anonymous release, I am happy to see that finally these things are taken seriously.
It's unbearable.
These network crows feel unpunished.
I really hope that we will finally get these networks to clean up, whether it's Twitter or Facebook, that they delete the ignoble messages themselves.
I myself have filed numerous complaints.
Some have been dismissed because the perpetrators have not been found. "
- "Thrown from the top of a bridge" -
Georges Salines, father of a victim of the 2015 attacks, was the target of hate messages on Twitter.
"It was the first time. I was the subject of very nasty messages, including death threats. One of them said that collaborators and those who are not virulent enough against Muslims should be thrown out. from the top of a bridge These are words but obviously it can fall on disturbed spirits who can take action, we do not know.
I lodged a complaint at the start of the school year then I received a letter which basically said that the complaint had been closed because the investigators were not able to identify + the perpetrators in the absence of any response the requisitions sent to the company Twitter +.
I am completely in favor of the possibility of having anonymity on social networks, but I am opposed to it being used to insult, to threaten.
There is impunity there, it is enough to create an anonymous account and to use it to attack anyone, in this case we are victims of terrorism.
It is particularly indelicate. "
- "It doesn't stop" -
Maxime Haes, 27, is an LGBT activist.
For nearly six and a half years, he has received hate messages, sometimes daily, in connection with his sexual orientation and his political ideas.
"I received homophobic insults, on my physique, photomontages. I was called a pedophile, I was reported as such to associations, they attacked my family. There are phases. which are extremely violent.
As early as 2015, I started trying to defend myself legally.
I decided to file a complaint.
There were eight attempts, two of which went through a lawyer.
Four were refused, sometimes illegally.
The only time my complaint was properly taken, it lasted five hours.
I was received by three women, ultra-empathetic, who did their job.
There was a method.
For me, Twitter moderation is a real problem.
What are their management rules?
Rather than moderating the content, Twitter creates + makeup +, we can hide, but the accounts are not suspended.
The problem with cyberstalking is that it is ongoing.
There are times when we are harassed on a daily basis.
It doesn't stop ".
© 2020 AFP