Five young people were in court in Paris today, calling for hatred and violence against the Asian community on social networks.

On October 28, 2020, as President Emmanuel Macron announced a second confinement, hate messages against "the Chinese" and the Asian community in general spread on Twitter in a few hours.

These are five young people who are good in every way.

One dreams of becoming a police officer or magistrate, the other is at Sciences Po or in engineering school… However, they were in court on Wednesday for having called for hatred against the Asian community on the Twitter network , following the announcement of the second lockdown in October 2020. They do not deny the facts.

An investigation demanded by the prosecution will lift the anonymity of several accounts that have published hate speech including that of the five defendants.

Four other people, minors at the time of the facts, will have to appear later before a court adapted to their age.

None of the defendants, aged 19 to 25, has a criminal record.

Only one of them is assisted by a lawyer.

The offending tweets are read at the hearing.

Several are terribly offensive.

All are targeting the Chinese community accused of having a link with the coronavirus.

"It's racism"

Alexis D., 21, a student in an engineering school, explains his gesture by feeling "fed up with the announcement of confinement".

"I saw that other people had this kind of thing. I stupidly followed the movement without thinking," he explains.

"Would you have yelled the same words in the street?", Wants to know one of the assessors.

"No, because in the street I know that people can hear me and that I can hurt them", answers the young man in the gray suit.

“Are you a racist, sir?” Asks a civil party lawyer.

"No! (...) What I wrote, I do not really mean it, but I now understand the racist nature behind these words", he said.

During this period, "our families were more afraid of being attacked in the street than of the Covid", testifies Jacques Hua, a Parisian trader of Chinese origin.

Imad R., 25, another defendant, awkwardly tries to explain that his twitter account was "humorous".

The offending tweet, which he does not recognize having written, nevertheless called for “beating” students studying Chinese.

It was "unacceptable", "it's racism", he admits today.

The tweet from 19-year-old Dylan B. spoke of "extinguishing all light of hope" in Chinese eyes.

"I'm sorry. I wrote it out of anger over the coronavirus. I was not aware of my words," he defends himself.

The lawyer of the MRAP (Movement against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples), civil party, intervenes.

"If in the sentence you posted we replace + Chinese + by + Arabic + or" Black +, what does that matter to you? ", She wants to know.

"It has already happened, but it does not impact me, I love myself as I am, it does not affect me", replies the defendant who is Black.

Ziad B., a 2nd year student at Sciences Po Paris on the Menton campus, is the only defendant assisted by a lawyer.

Aged 20, he is upset.

He is being prosecuted for having responded, in the manner of one-upmanship, to a tweet which called for "assaulting every Chinese" crossed in the street.

A trial with "educational value"

The young man apologizes.

"I put a barrier between the real and the virtual (...) I forgot that it could be taken up on such a large scale", he analyzes.

Civil party lawyers claim damages for the associations they represent.

Only one lawyer is calling for jail.

The lawyer of the MRAP, Me Katloum Gachi deplores a "certain cowardice" on the side of the defendants.

"We have the feeling behind our screen that we are in total impunity," she said.

Arié Alimi, lawyer for the League of Human Rights, wonders about these "young people who do not display hatred, are aware of the racist nature of the messages uttered".

The prosecutor who is part of the National Pole against online hate, recently created within the Paris prosecutor's office, recalls that "the words we use on the internet are not trivial" and have "an impact".

"Between words and deeds, the border is porous and this misguided use of social networks is dangerous," she underlines.

But she wants to believe in the "educational value" of this trial.

She claims for the five defendants "a citizenship course".

The judgment will be rendered on May 26.