Thirteen young people of various backgrounds and religions from around France face potential prison time for charges including online harassment, online death threats and online rape threats against teenager called Mila.
Ten men and three women aged between 18 and 30 went on trial at a Paris court on Thursday accused of online harassment and, for eight of them, making death threats, in abuse that targeted a teenage girl who posted videos critical of Islam on Instagram and who has since been living in police protection.
A group of around 30 men from French media organisations founded an informal club called the League of LOL which for years regularly harassed feminists, people of colour, and gay men with vividly pornographic, racist and sexist abuse online, and who were exposed this week by the daily Libération after it discovered that some of its staff were among them.
An official body in charge of overseeing sexual equality in France has criticised the way that many people are harassing women online “with impunity”. This is despite the many laws that are available to combat such harassment. The Haut Conseil à l’Égalité entre les Femmes et les Hommes (HCE) points to a trial it carried out in 2017 in which less than 8% of sexist content flagged to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube was taken down. Louise Fessard reports.
