An investigation was opened in June by the Paris prosecutor’s office, after a complaint from Magali Berdah, who advises influencers from reality TV.
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Thirteen people were arrested throughout France on Wednesday, October 19, for having threatened the “popess of influencers” Magali Berdah on social networks, franceinfo learned from a source familiar with the matter. The information was confirmed by the Paris prosecutor’s office. An investigation was opened on June 1 by the national center for the fight against online hatred (PNLH) of the Paris public prosecutor’s office, after a complaint from Magali Berdah, who advises influencers from reality TV.
>> “Scams, money and politics: the real business of influencers”, watch “Complément d’Enquête” broadcast Thursday, September 8 on France 2
The investigation, coordinated by the central office for the fight against crimes against humanity (OCLCH) made it possible to identify these 13 suspects, in around ten departments, from the Paris region to Corsica, via Gironde. and the Sarthe. At the end of their police custody, twelve of them (11 men and one woman) received a summons to be tried by the criminal court in 2023 for “cyberharassment and death threats, some of which because of the religion of the victim”.
These threats followed accusations made on the internet by rapper Booba. According to the artist, many customers who purchased products promoted by influencers either never received their order or received counterfeit items. Booba, followed by nearly 7 million subscribers on Instagram, had created the hashtag #influvoleurs. On Twitter, the rapper had denounced “pedo-sociopaths and thieves, scammers, manipulators”adding: “With or without me, an army has woken up. Watch out…”.
The influencer then claimed to have received a large number of hate messages of an anti-Semitic nature or death threats. Magali Berdah had obtained the closure of Booba’s Instagram account, a decision that has since been invalidated by the courts – but the account is still inaccessible.
If the Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the threats against Magali Berdah, another investigation was opened on September 6 by the Grasse prosecutor’s office for “misleading commercial practices”, after a complaint by Booba against X for “fraud”. The rapper denounces in particular “a complex and organized scam system, centralized by the company Shauna Events [entreprise dirigée par Magali Berdah]“.