How a 'digital army' paid for by French club Paris Saint-Germain smeared its opponents online

“Adrien“Adrien Rabiot. Fat SOB. He doesn't move.” On the surface this was simply just another rude Tweet of the kind that, all too sadly, is commonly found on social media. But in reality this message posted on March 7th 2019 about the French footballer Adrien Rabiot was just one of hundreds published by accounts secretly controlled by the director of communications at the top French football club Paris Saint-Germain.

With the French justice system currently taking a close interest in the operations carried out for the club by a lobbyist and a former police officer (see here), Mediapart has now obtained a report which sets out in minute detail what are known as 'influence operations' carried out for PSG by a sub-contractor between 2018 and 2020.

This document reveals that the club, owned by the state of Qatar, created a Twitter “digital army” of fake accounts, tasked with carrying out very aggressive and often very crude online attacks on numerous targets. These included media deemed hostile to PSG such as Mediapart and sports newspaper L’Équipe, the fan slapped by its Brazilian star Neymar (read our story on this here) and the young woman who accused the same footballer of rape. But the targets also included leading figures from the club itself, such as the player Adrien Rabiot and former director Antero Henrique. Astonishingly, even the club's iconic star Kylian Mbappé became a target when he suggested in 2019 that he might leave the club.

Our 50-page document is a report produced by the agency Digital Big Brother (DBB) assessing the results of its activities for PSG for the 2018-2019 season. Registered in Barcelona, DBB is controlled by Lotfi Bel Hadj. This Franco-Tunisian businessman heads a string of companies which rent out their services to leading figures, companies or states, looking after their digital communications.

In 2019 Lotfi Bel Hadj and his company UReputation worked for the Tunisian presidential candidate Nabil Karoui, while the latter was in prison. At the time Facebook closed dozens of accounts suspected of being linked to Bel Hadj, and the think tank Atlantic Council criticised his influencing operation practices in a report called 'Operation Carthage'.

The report stated that the army of trolls created by DBB was overseen by PSG's communications service, headed at the time by Jean-Martial Ribes. For seven years he worked very closely under Nasser al-Khelaifi, the boss of PSG, until leaving in May 2022 to work for the communications service at a subsidiary of the luxury goods group LVMH.

When contacted PSG said that “the club has never entered into a contract with an agency in order to damage individuals and institutions”. According to Mediapart's information, while in fact there was no contract with the club, it was indeed PSG who paid for the digital influencing services carried out by Digital Big Brother.

Meanwhile the agency itself told Mediapart that it worked for PSG under the orders of “Jean-Martial Ribes”. DBB said: “As director of communications he was, while in post, in charge of Paris Saint-Germain's communications strategy. And our role for him … was to adapt the strategy established by the director of communications at the time to the digital arena, with our different tools.”

Jean-Martial Ribes did not respond to requests for comment. A source close to Nasser al-Khelaifi told us: “Obviously the president doesn't deal with campaigns on social media or Twitter nor have the time or inclination to hire people to troll other people.”

In its report on its activity in the 2019-2019 season delivered to PSG, the agency DBB adopts a very businesslike tone. After a brief overview of good and bad events during the season, the agency then describes its “digital army”. It writes: “It's an army of 'partner' Twitter accounts. The difference from the well-known 'troll farms' is that our 'partners' really exist. The digital army at PSG's disposal lives football, thinks football.”

These fake profiles are managed by humans in order to make it appear that they are real fans of the club. The report notes that this “army” contains “many pro-PSG accounts of which 10% are accounts with a reputation for being 'influencers' on social networks (having regard to how long they have existed, the number of followers and relevance to the information), ready to intervene to safeguard PSG's image.” These accounts were “able to influence other accounts relaying information/rumours/scandals” but could also start “counter-attacks” to try to “put an end to a rumour”.

The strategy centred on a “master” account, Paname Squad, which portrays itself on Twitter as a “collective of Paris Saint-Germain fans”. Started in August 2018, this account was fed by PSG with exclusives about the football transfer market as a way of boosting its audience and its credibility with journalists and thus enable it to “influence the way news stories are handled”. A website was also created to position itself as a media outlet. The Paname Squad account built up close to 10,000 followers, though that number came down after 2020 when the contract was not renewed.
Around this flagship Paname Squad account there were around ten or so “partner” accounts, with names such as Lana PSG, Ultra Attitude, Janot PSG and La daronne du parc, and who were there to boost the campaigns by “trolling”. The majority of the satellite accounts mentioned in the DBB report have since been closed down by Twitter.

According to the report the “digital army” accomplished several missions: “community infiltration”, “making contact with influential journalists”, “gathering information”, “contact with competitors” and “promotion of the PSG brand”. In this way Paname Squad helped look after the promotion of Nasser al-Khelaifi's club. The account also lobbied on strategic issues, in particular in fighting against financial fair play (FPF) regulations. These UEFA rules on budgetary discipline for clubs were breached by PSG. The FPF had to be “blown away”, wrote Paname Squad.

Another part of the digital army's activity was rather more problematic. In its annual report the DBB agency describes nine “attacks” against precise targets in the 2018-2019 season. “The response and interaction strategy is worked on with the PSG communications team,” says the document.

The club's “digital army” thus worked to protect at all costs the reputation of the Brazilian striker Neymar who had been bought by PSG for 222 million euros. After the superstar struck a supporter at the stadium in Rennes, western France, the Paname Squad published the full identity of the victim and tried to depict him as a criminal (see our revelations here).

When a former girlfriend of Neymar accused him of rape (the case was eventually dropped) the “digital army” sought to sully her name. “Versions that change because of the antidepressants … That's karma stupid cow,” Tweeted the Lana PSG account.

Paname Squad also launched violent attacks on opponents. The boss of rival club Olympique Lyonnais, Jean-Michel Aulas, who complained about the almost unlimited budget that Qatar could give PSG, was called a “crybaby” and in a photomontage was portrayed as the hapless chicken cartoon character Calimero. Marseille, home to PSG's bitter rival, Olympique de Marseille, was described as a “city of sluts”.

Paname Squad was also used to denigrate figures at the club itself, during internal disputes. Following a transfer market season widely seen as a flop, the account criticised the former sporting director Antero Henrique, stating that the coach and several players “don't understand his decisions”.

The most insulting attacks were aimed at Adrien Rabot and his mother Véronique (who is also his agent) when the player was in dispute with the club about his terms of departure – he joined Juventus in 2019. Several accounts from the “digital army” described him as a “fat SOB” and a “dirty traitor” or a “son of a wh***”. The Lana PSG account said: “He hasn't go the balls to get rid of his mother who lays down the law to him about everything and who's driving his career off a cliff.”

The PSG fake accounts even dared to have a go at the club's icon Kylian Mbappé, even though he was supposedly untouchable. In March 2019, following rumours that he might leave the club for Real Madrid, the French star told the 'Téléfoot' programme on the TF1 channel that he wanted to stay at PSG, even though the club had been knocked out early from the last 16 of the Champions League European competition. In a Tweet that would later be deleted Paname Squad congratulated Mbappe for having “silenced the Madrid and Cie rumours”, but added a barb when it asked the player to keep quiet and to perform better. “Now work in silence and stay discreet. No need to make too many statements. We need a response on the pitch,” it said.

Two months later, when he received his trophy as best player in France's top division Ligue 1, awarded by the players' union the Union Nationale des Footballeurs Professionnels (UNFP), Mbappé heaped the pressure back on the club management. “I feel that it's now perhaps time to take on more responsibilities. I hope that this will perhaps be at PSG, that would be great. Or it will perhaps be elsewhere,” he said.

Paname Squad quickly posted an attack on the player. “The Paris supporters love you a lot, you know that … you sent your 'message' this evening, and what timing? If you could press like that on the pitch....”

But the most frequent attacks from the PSG secret accounts were carried out against the media, with two main targets: Mediapart and the sports newspaper L'Équipe.

At the end of 2018 the “digital army” launched a special operation against Mediapart, called 'Mediapartouze', to counter the revelations of the second season of the 'Football Leaks' investigations, which were published with the journalistic consortium European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) and the France 2 television programme 'Envoyé Spécial'.

“Let's show solidarity and unite behind PSG, let's not allow these vultures to sully our image,” Tweeted Paname Squad. The account accused Mediapart of publishing “fake news” and of delivering “sensationalism” just to make money. Our German partner Der Spiegel was accused of having bought the data from the whistleblower Rui Pinto – which is completely untrue.

The “digital army” was especially active over our revelations on profiling and ethnic discrimination at PSG when it came to recruiting young players. Lana PSG insisted that the articles on this by the “down-and-out journalists” at Mediapart were false. “Your lousy investigation, it undermines your credibility,” it said. The investigation by 'Envoyé Spécial' on the same subject was branded “phony” and “a load of crap”.

Several Mediapart journalists were the subject of personal attacks, in particular Yann Philippin who coordinated the 'Football leaks' investigation (and is also a co-author of this article). He was labelled a “hacker” and “robber” and told to “change profession”.
The Paname Squad account went even further on November 16th 2018 when it threatened to reveal the “numbers” and “conversations” of several Mediapart journalists. The following day the site published the first six digits of Edwy Plenel's mobile phone number, with Mediapart's publishing editor renamed “Crawsy le rouge”.

The second media outlet despised by the PSG secret accounts was L'Équipe whom they dubbed “L'Epipe” - 'pipe' is French slang for a blowjob. The daily sports newspaper was regularly targeted, for example when it revealed the launch of a judicial investigation over suspicions that a match between PSG and Red Star Belgrade had been thrown. “Pitiful” Tweeted Paname Squad accompanied by a vomiting emoji and the hashtag “#BoycottLEquipe”.

The pent-up tension came to a head on December 8th 2019 when L'Équipe published an article stating that PSG “might have to accept losing one of its two star players, Kylian Mbappé or Neymar” if the club were to be hit with “major punishment” for breaching the financial fair play rules. That same evening PSG itself published a statement headed “L'Équipe, disinformation media”. The club decided to ban journalists from the newspaper from attending training sessions or press conferences. This unprecedented ban lasted several months.

At the same time the digital army raged against L'Équipe and its editor-in-chief Jérôme Cazadieu. On December 8th 2018 Paname Squad Tweeted the PSG club statement accompanied by a kiss addressed to @Cazadieu and the video of a man being struck violently in the face.

The same day Paname Squad made fun of the fact that Jérôme Cazadieu had protested about the club's statement. “However, we have always been faithful to our editorial line of being “complete w.....” said the account, distorting the newspaper editor-in-chief's actual words.

On December 11th 2018 Paname Squad published a mock L'Équipe front page showing Jérôme Cazadieu offering his “apologies” to PSG after the “last two months of turmoil which have turned our writing into disinformation.”

The account returned to the theme in March 2019 with a foul-mouthed Tweet: “How can one respect L'Équipe with its clickbait editorial line, its visceral hatred of PSG, and its cardboard cut-out journalists … complete wh****.”

The agency Digital Big Brother declined “in the interests of confidentiality” to make any comment on the content of the “different operations and campaigns” carried out for PSG. “We attach importance to discretion concerning the cases that we handle and over the agreements that we sign,” said DBB. Questioned on this issue, PSG did not respond.

It remains to be seen whether the matter will be taken up by the legal authorities. Nelson, the fan struck by Neymar, and whose identity was revealed by PSG's “digital army”, told Mediapart that he was planning to make a formal complaint.

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• The original French version of this article can be found here.

English version by Michael Streeter