Its objective is to fight against "cyber-Islamism".

The Republican Counter-Speech Unit, which was launched after the assassination of Samuel Paty to fight Islamism on social networks, said it had identified around twenty profiles in the dissemination of an anti-Republican speech in French, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.

A few days after the assassination on October 16, 2020 of the history-geography professor, the Minister for Citizenship Marlène Schiappa announced the creation of a “republican counter-discourse unit” (UCDR).

A year later, around twenty French-speaking authors - people or organizations - "particularly active", "from separatist movements", were therefore identified as the main disseminators of hate speech.

"We must help poorly informed young people on social networks to exercise their free will"

"The assassination of Samuel Paty has accentuated the feeling that we must act on social networks", declared Friday the Minister for Citizenship Marlène Schiappa, referring to the campaign which had been carried out against the professor on the Internet, to from the lie of a student at her college.

"We must respond to these speeches" and "help poorly informed young people on social networks to exercise their free will by producing clean content advocating the values ​​of the Republic", she added.

The goal is therefore to intensify the fight against hate speech and "separatist", all under the authority of the general secretariat of the Interministerial Committee for the prevention of crime and the fight against radicalization (CIPDR) chaired by the prefect Christian Gravel .

"A watch" provided by a team of fifteen people

Made up of a team of about fifteen members ("community managers", computer graphics artists, "motion designers"), its role is to "monitor carefully", "respond to extremist content" and to educate through posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

The unit's work focuses on "the pervasive Islamist threat" and "on other forms of separatism", such as the ultra-right.

"We must reach out to the new generations but also the others because today everyone is making their opinion on the networks", insists the Ministry of the Interior, which affirms that today, "the majority" of related content to the practice of Islam on social networks in France "are connected to the Salafist sphere and are part of Islamism, very far from the spiritual sphere".

By the Web

What does the “Republican counter-discourse unit” which will soon be implemented on social networks consist of?

Society

Attack in Conflans: The government wants to strengthen the role of Pharos, a tool in the fight against "cyber Islamism"

  • By the Web

  • Radicalization

  • Terrorism

  • Radical Islamism

  • Social networks

  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Islamism

  • Assassination of Samuel Paty