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Evian and Ramadan: five minutes to understand a runaway

2021-04-15T15:17:00.238Z


Since the brand posted a first tweet on Tuesday, before evoking a clumsiness, hundreds of Internet users and other personalities in


"Notice of freshness in France", proudly displays the Evian brand in the banner of its Twitter page.

However, spirits were once again heated Tuesday on the social network, from a tweet published by the mineral water company.

But even more than the original tweet, it was the company's apologies that ended up stoking the embers, illustrating if necessary the ability of the social network to trigger controversy.

The Parisian took the time to break down chronologically the birth of the “Eviangate”, which in reality presents all the characteristics of the typical runaway.

Where does the conflagration come from?

On April 13, in the middle of the afternoon, an apparently innocuous tweet was published on the Twitter account of the mineral water brand Evian.

This invites its subscribers to retweet (relay) the said tweet if they have drunk more than a liter of water during the day.

Nothing very attractive a priori.

It was without taking into account the fact that this message was posted on the first day of Ramadan, when the fasting period for French people of Muslim faith began.

Period during which believers can only hydrate themselves before dawn and after the fourth prayer.

Internet users of Muslim faith, as our colleagues from Marianne write for example in an article published the next day, have they had "virulent" reactions?

Did they feel “offended”?

Did they denounce an Islamophobic act?

Not really, if we look at the initial reactions following the publication of this tweet.

An internet user thus took the time to go through the first 57 tweets that followed the first post from the Evian Twitter account, detailing his methodology that Le Parisien also took the time to apply.

It turns out that the vast majority of these tweets are light, with a (not always achieved) humorous aim.

There are pure mockery, "Vive Cristaline", "Cristaline is better", but also memes, gifs.

And taunts also on the "timing" of this publication.

The term Islamophobia does not appear once in this list of early tweets.

Hahaha the disastrous timing

- Hugo (@yugobe_hugo) April 13, 2021

As for the exceptions, let's be complete, a racist tweet from an Internet user with two subscribers accusing Evian of "Zionist fdp", another wondering if the brand is racist, two tweets comparing the community manager (person in charge of publications on social networks, Editor's note) from the brand to Jean Messiha or Eric Zemmour, and two others illustrating the potential satisfaction felt within the National Gathering on reading Evian's tweet.

https://t.co/jCzxEuxOBt



One of the exceptions: racist tweet from an account with 2 subscribers who joined twitter in October 2020 and produced less than 10 tweets, including some sexist and negrophobic

- Sartorius (@Tsarorius) April 15, 2021

Why has the controversy swelled?

For Nicolas Henin, consultant in disinformation and prevention of radicalism, a kind of switch occurred shortly after 6 p.m.

“That's when an influential far-right account known to somehow lead racist raids posted his tweet.

This tweet, which the Parisian chose to anonymize, was widely relayed, having been retweeted more than 400 and "liked" more than 2,500 times.

It only contains four screenshots.

Six minutes later, the first tweet from an account authenticated as close to the far right is identified.

The machine is racing.

Tweets abound and many accounts this time denounce blackmail against Islamophobia.

Evian twitter controversy

Shortly after 6 p.m. on April 13, this influential account, followed by thousands of followers, entered the debate.

Twitte screenshot

At 9:14 p.m., a few tens of minutes later, Evian tried to limit the damage.

At that time, the sauce has already risen and it is wrong to consider that the brand only reacted to a round of tweets from French people of Muslim faith saying they were shocked and denouncing Islamophobia.

"Good evening, here the Evian team, sorry for the clumsiness of this tweet which calls for no provocation!"

".

Good evening, here the Evian team, sorry for the clumsiness of this tweet which calls for no provocation!


🤍💧✨

- evian France (@evianFrance) April 13, 2021

Did the group panic a little at the pile of controversial messages?

Contacted, Danone is satisfied with a laconic response.

“This tweet published yesterday sparked several reactions from Internet users.

We wanted to react quickly to remind us that we remain an open and inclusive brand.

This tweet did not call for any provocation and is in line with the editorial line of our account.

"

Reactions galore, even within the executive

“The question of identity is always privileged during the implementation of disinformation campaigns because it makes people react, estimates Nicolas Henin.

Many present Twitter as a haven for Islamist trolls.

There are also, but we often see that these controversies result from blows mounted by the extreme right.

Which seems to be the case with Evian.

"

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"Islamophobia": five minutes to understand the controversy around a term that divides

Indeed, "it makes you react".

In recent hours, politicians from all sides have interfered in the controversy.

But also commentators, philosophers and other polemicists.

The debate has become electrified.

Wednesday evening, in the TPMP show, we wondered if the Evian brand had done well to evoke a clumsiness.

And here is Eric Naulleau to directly accuse Gilles Verdez of being a "useful idiot of Islamism".

On the social network, exchanges are indeed festered, against a background of Islamophobia and religious entrism.

And now unfortunate Internet users, who had joked during the publication of the first tweet published by Evian, begin to have to justify the fact that they were simple jokes.

I don't want to upset you eh but I'm not even a Muslim it was a joke nobody took the cm's tweet the wrong way

- RapVibes (@_RapVibes) April 13, 2021

In the political sphere, many elected officials have also looked at the “Eviangate”.

“For some Islamists, Muslim fasting should be imposed on everyone.

Well no !

Let's stop this madness ”, tweeted the deputy LR Éric Ciotti.

Robert Ménard, the mayor of Béziers, also expressed a very strong opinion on the question.

“Between certain Muslims who are more and more paranoid and intolerant and the total submission of certain economic players, we understood that we were very badly off!

“, He posted on the same network.

The philosopher Raphaël Enthoven has multiplied the tweets and arrests.

And also used a little irony.

“The first firm that talks to me about food on Yom Kippur, I sue it for offense,” he wrote.

“This kind of incident, which widens the divisions, is disastrous in a process of prevention of radicalization, further deplores Nicolas Henin.

Any policy to prevent radicalization is based on reducing polarization ”.

Asked about this this Thursday morning by RTL, the Secretary of State for Youth and Engagement Sarah El Hairy felt that Evian should not have apologized.

“I'm sad about these excuses,” she said, before expanding: “Twitter is not real life.

Twitter is not the real thought of the French.

It turns out that on Twitter, there is a kind of sphere of Islamogauchists who willfully push for repentance, for victimization.

And we succeed in making Evian doubt.

That's what's crazy.

»An assertion that does not seem to fully match the genesis of the Eviangate.

Source: leparis

All life articles on 2021-04-15

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