Los Angeles (AFP)

It all started with a podcast of comedians around Britney Spears' Instagram: the wave #FreeBritney, to the rescue of a megastar put under supervision, mobilizes worldwide on social networks beyond fans, associations of people vulnerable to civil rights defenders.

In 2017, Tess Barker and Babs Gray just wanted to have fun with the digital showcase of the performer of "Oops! ... I did it again". But the American actresses are quickly intrigued by the tutelage of the singer and wonder if all that is not "Toxic" ("Toxic", one of the tubes of Britney Spears). This legal system places her since 2008 under the full control of her father, following a series of ultra-publicized slippages under the flashes of the paparazzi.

"And it became an investigative podcast," describes Tess Barker.

With her sidekick, she then dives into the legal hearings on the issue to see more clearly.

In 2019, Britney Spears disappears from social networks and they receive an alarming audio message: the pop star has been forcibly interned in a mental institution.

The informant presents himself as a former member of a cabinet working on this supervision.

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The next podcast, titled "#FreeBritney", goes viral and global.

And the hashtag is still running, having been relayed half a million times when Britney Spears delivered an explosive testimony at the end of June.

"Traumatized" and "depressed", she claims to have no power to decide on her friendships, her finances or even her choice of contraception.

- From Brazil to the Philippines -

This digital rallying cry in its favor is being used from the UK to the Philippines and a quarter of #FreeBritney is even posted from Brazil according to Twitter's analytics tool Hashtagify.

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In Chile, Andrea Corina Lopez, Britney fan, who herself suffered from mental disorders, launched her channel #FreeBritney on YouTube to help Spanish speakers to follow the evolution of the legal fight started by the interpreter of "... Baby one more time "to break its legal chains.

The slogan is also used on placards of pro-Britney protesters outside the Los Angeles court to review the case and at rallies in other American cities.

"In the past, people could show themselves in court with signs, but it's very different if it's all happening on Twitter", dissects Katherine Larsen, editor of the Journal of Fandom Studies, American academic publication that is attached to the fan universe.

- "It took years" -

And to recall that fans of the K-pop star group BTS managed to raise a million dollars in one day for the Black Lives Matter movement with a digital mobilization.

“There are a lot of people involved in the #FreeBritney movement who don't even listen to their music,” says Babs Gray.

Associations of vulnerable people, civil rights defense or lawyers have thus joined the ranks of pro-Britney.

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This is already a great victory for Jordan Miller, who runs Britney's fan site, BreatheHeavy, and has been signing posts with 'Free Britney' since 2009. "It took years to write about this, qu 'we are talking about it, so that the world opens its eyes to what I have been seeing for a long time ", he rejoices.

"The happy end is that Britney Spears can one day enjoy the same freedoms that everyone is entitled to have," concludes Tess Barker.

The tube machine won a first step: a judge authorized it for the first time to choose its own lawyer, to try to have this measure annulled, which deprives it of a large part of its autonomy.

© 2021 AFP