Moves in France to stop performances by the controversial comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala have been accompanied by a surge of interest in him on social media platforms, reports the BBC.
Over the past two weeks, the number of the comic's followers on Twitter has more than doubled to over 75,000 and his Facebook "likes" have gone up by more than 100,000 to exceed half a million.
However, there are mixed feelings about Dieudonne - who has a string of convictions for hate speech - in the burgeoning French Twitter conversation.
On 27 December, Interior Minister Manuel Valls condemned recent "racist and anti-Semitic remarks" by Dieudonne about the broadcast journalist Patrick Cohen and announced moves to ban the comic's shows.
The minister encouraged local officials to bar the comic from performing, on public order grounds.
Dieudonne had a strong online presence even before the authorities decided to act: a website, dieudosphere.com, which is currently inaccessible after reportedly being hacked in mid-December, as well as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts and a network of supportive blogs and Facebook pages.
This "Dieudosphere", as it has been dubbed in France, has grown in size significantly since 27 December.
Read more of this report from the BBC.