Among the priorities of the new Paris prosecutor, fight against online hatred and harassment on social networks. Faced with perpetrators whose profiles are very heterogeneous, justice needed to broaden its range of sanctions. From now on, people identified during an investigation by the PNLH (National Pole for the Fight against Hate) may be sentenced to follow a two-day citizenship course. Laure Beccuau signed an agreement this Friday with the ABC insertion association, which will be responsible for setting them up from April. These courses – paid for adults, free for minors – may also be offered as an alternative to sanctions. A first in France.
“This internship must have an educational aspect”, explains the magistrate to 20 minutes. “Social networks encourage group phenomena, harassment, insults and a certain feeling of impunity. The profiles of the perpetrators are very diverse, but you have to know how to make them all think about the use of social networks and the consequences of harassment. That’s the idea of this course. The idea, continues the prosecutor, is also to recall that “what is prohibited on the public highway must be just as much prohibited on the Internet in particular, on social networks”. “When you’re bullied online, it’s not virtual, it’s life changing. Authors must be made aware that there are people who see their lives completely deconstructed. »
Feeling of impunity
Concretely, the course will take place over two days, probably at the town hall of the 20th arrondissement of Paris. Each group will consist of a dozen people. “First of all, we must remember the law, of course. But it is also necessary to stimulate the empathy of these people with regard to the victims, to show them the damage caused beyond the screen”, indicates for her part Céline Alessieu, the director of ABC insertion, an association which has already organized nearly 600 citizenship courses. “You have to make them understand that if online hate were transferred to real life, it would not be accepted,” she says. Finally, the participants will have to “think about what pushes them to let go, to have this feeling of impunity behind their screen”.
Calls for murder, verbal abuse, threats, insults… The cases handled by the PNLH, which was set up within the Paris prosecutor’s office in January 2021 and which is competent for all of France, are more and more numerous. The magistrates assigned to it have, in one year, handled nearly 500 cases, some of which have attracted a lot of media attention, such as the Mila affair. Among the files still on their desks, those concerning the threats received by elected officials or parliamentarians who are targeted by “antivax”.
Inhabited by a feeling of impunity behind their screens, cyberstalkers or authors of hateful or racist remarks are often unaware that they may find themselves in court. However, at the Paris court, whose right chambers are dedicated to this phenomenon, five hearings are already scheduled this year.
“Online hate is not virtual”
“Insults, threats, are a reality that disturb, upset and can destroy victims”, recalls Stéphane Noël, the president of the Paris court.
This internship, he says, “should lead to reflection: that of saying that freedom is synonymous with responsibility. Online hate is not virtual, it is real because it is felt very painfully by the victims. Beyond prosecutions, hearings, sanctions, there is a strong educational challenge”.