Barely installed, here she is already pitching. Launched on September 29, the “Bronner Commission”, which bears the name of the sociologist who chairs it, has faced strong criticism in recent days. Responsible for formulating proposals to fight against the hold of conspiracy theories and disinformation in public debate,
this new instance has been singled out after the disclosure of the members that compose it. Meeting for a very first working session on Monday afternoon, the committee will therefore begin its mission in a tense context. But what should it really be used for and why is it controversial? 20 minutes Take stock.
What is the objective of this commission?
The Elysée has set four objectives for sociologist Gérald Bronner and the thirteen members who must support him in this task. The first aims to “define a scientific consensus […] on the impact of the Internet on our lives ”. The second is to “formulate proposals” relating to education, prevention, regulation and legalization of “hate entrepreneurs” online.
Third objective, “to offer new common spaces” online promoting “democracy”, “citizenship” and “collective”. Finally, the commission will have to “develop a historical and geopolitical analysis” of the international threats to which France is exposed today on the Internet. To carry out this task, the members of the committee have two months to hear the experts likely to respond to these four themes before submitting a report in December.
Why does its composition raise questions?
The charge arrived the day after the commission was installed and crystallized around one of the members: the surgeon Guy Vallancien. In a column published on September 30 in The world, the pulmonologist Irène Frachon, at the origin of the alert on the dangers of the Mediator, implicated this professor of medicine. According to her, Guy Vallancien was one of the “spearheads of a nebula of high-ranking doctors, professors of medicine, sometimes academicians of medicine, who, for years and shamelessly, have tried to discredit, minimize, even deny the seriousness of the human drama caused by the Mediator ”. To support her point, the pulmonologist points to two publications signed by Professor Vallancien, one dating from 2015 and the other from 2016.
In the process, an article published on October 1 by Release in its “CheckNews” section recalled that Guy Vallancien was involved in the case of the “mass grave” of the University of Paris-Descartes. This scandal,
revealed by journalist Anne Jouan in The Express in 2019, questioned the center for body donation (CDC) accused of keeping corpses in disastrous conditions for years. However Guy Vallancien directed the CDC for ten years, between 2004 and 2014. Finally, a few weeks before the installation of the commission,
the weekly Marianne published an investigation targeting the same doctor, indicating that he had been targeted by a reprimand from the Order of Physicians for a medical certificate deemed “false”.
Beyond this controversy, several Internet users also deplored the absence of jurist or legal experts in this commission. However, one of the objectives set by the Elysée relates specifically to the judicial response to “entrepreneurs” of online hatred.
What was the commission’s response?
Guest Sunday October 3 from the show C Politics on France 5, sociologist Gérald Bronner reacted to these criticisms. “Guy Vallancien, it must be remembered, is a very great doctor, a very great surgeon with recognition from his international peers. He is a member of the Academy of Medicine and that is obviously why we thought of him, ”he explained in the preamble.
Conspiracy: “We will see tomorrow if we have to keep Guy Vallencien, if he does not manage to convince us he will leave the commission. »The sociologist Gérald Bronner in #CPolitics pic.twitter.com/R8kot3K05r
– C Politics (@ CPolF5) October 3, 2021
“And then I discovered – like you – this whole story, I’m not a police inspector […]. The first meeting of the commission will take place tomorrow and we will decide collectively ”, he added, before accusing“ malicious spirits of radiographing each of the members ”. Meeting for the first time in a working session this Monday evening, the committee could therefore decide to keep or separate from Guy Vallancien. “But it won’t be a drama. What matters is that we are going to work, I am not falling into such hysteria, ”concluded Gérald Bronner.