It all started with a message posted on Twitter.
“If this tweet reaches 50 likes, I send 27k
(i.e. 27,000, editor’s note
) false subscribers to Élisabeth Borne so that she has exactly 49.3k subscribers”, launched this Sunday March 19 an Internet user under the pseudonym @EstChauve at the address of his followers.
The official account of the Prime Minister on Instagram was then followed by around 12,300 people, indicates
Ouest-France
.
At 10,000 subscribers, the calculation was good (since it was 37 k that he should have sent to arrive at 49.3).
“A typo”, justifies the twittos, quoted by
Le Parisien
.
Action, reaction... Less than four hours later, Elisabeth Borne's Instagram account had 49.3k (49,300) subscribers, in reference to the recent use of Article 49.3 of the Constitution to force pension reform.
“The idea came to me on a whim, I saw that it had less than 49,300 subscribers and I knew a site to create fake subscribers, tells the “troller” to the media
DNA
.
I struggled to reach 50 likes and suddenly it took, and I had mentions everywhere.
The enthusiasm has far exceeded what I imagined.
In video, Elisabeth Borne tries to extinguish the controversy over women "penalized" by the pension reform
“A desire for disinformation”
The initiative was in any case not to the taste of Matignon, who has since been working to have these “false accounts” deleted, as we learn in
Le Parisien
.
Elisabeth Borne's communications team quickly made her Instagram account "private", a restriction that allows the account holder to accept (or not) any subscription request.
At the same time, the head of government's subscriber counter has started to fall again.
“A process has been put in place with the Instagram teams”, specified the entourage of Élisabeth Borne, still in the columns of Le
Parisien
, before denouncing “a raid with many false accounts” and “a desire for misinformation behind this malicious act".
Around 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Elisabeth Borne's Instagram account peaked at 24,900 subscribers.
