The verdict has arrived. On February 3, the Paris public prosecutor’s office announced the closing of the case of the “LOL League”, a Facebook group created in the 2010s and whose members, mostly journalists and communicators, are accused of computer harassment. Behind this interruption of the judicial process, the argument of an “inadequately characterized crime”.
An investigation opened in 2019
Yet there was no shortage of screenshots, videos and face-to-face testimonies to demonstrate the harassment suffered by many people.
The story had begun four years earlier, when the journalist Robin Andraca had published an article on the website Publication, in which he responds to a reader asking the newspaper’s fact-checking service whether or not there was a group called “La Ligue du LOL” and “harassed feminists on social networks.” This item has the effect of an explosion. The following weekend, testimonies poured into social networks describing acts of targeted harassment, based on photomontages, anonymous insults, offensive videos, degrading insults… Revealing, in passing, the extent of the phenomenon and the sexist culture that paralyzes digital space.
Monday 11 February 2019. Vincent Glad, freelance journalist and creator of the group, was fired, together with Alexandre Hervaud, head of the web service of Publication. The same fate for a dozen journalists (a decision subsequently condemned by the Paris labor court), while a list containing the names of the members of the group was made public on social media. A real tidal wave then shook the profession, public opinion and the world of the media. In an effort to stay afloat, some members are quick to post apologies that they later deem “exaggerated” and “hasty”. A question and answer that does not pass through the SOS Racisme and Prenons la Une associations, then doing justice. An investigation is opened in March, entrusted to the Brigade for the repression of local crime.
A classification without following that trivializes cyberbullying
The story of the LOL league had raised debates on its media treatment, linked in particular to the issue of the presumption of innocence, and to the publication of the names and addresses of the alleged members of the group. But above all he had called for a profound questioning of the profession regarding the sexism that reigns in many newsrooms. Cases of harassment had subsequently erupted in the newsroom of Information about France, Vice, Telerama or also World.
The decision to close the case is therefore a step backwards. As many observers and journalists point out, this is a way to trivialize this kind of behavior.
If there are still those who denounce a “media lynching”, without “concrete evidence or legal basis”, there has been no lack of reactions that underline the impunity of the perpetrators of the harassment. Feminist author Daria Marx, targeted by the LOL League, particularly regretted not seeing her abusers worried by the justice system.
In November 2022, a study published by e-Enfance revealed that 60% of young adults have already been harassed on the internet. Among the victims, 49% have already considered suicide. What does the law provide? Today cyberbullying is an aggravated form of moral harassment. The penalties incurred can go up to two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros. Far from it, this unresolved ranking shows that victims are too often ignored, even with supporting evidence.
Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
