It is 9:03 pm and the fighters, galvanized, cry victory.
Their attack was well conducted and everyone is happy to have hit so hard.
"We are proud of ourselves," the Vivi Warriors self-congratulate themselves by private message, as if they were returning from the front.
Without picking up their keyboard, these anti-vaccine activists, in fact, have just led a “digital raid” on a Facebook page extolling the vaccination against Covid-19.
In a few hours, the comment bar was pounded with thousands of hateful, insulting, terrorizing, vociferated messages in capital letters.
"Shut up your nazi", "Criminals!"
"," You are manipulators ", the same posts, with different fake profiles, but bearing a similar photo, a red double V, in reference to the VV or vivi warriors as" vivere ", in Italian, for" alive ".
PODCAST.
Who is Alexandra Henrion-Caude, geneticist who has become an antivax muse?
Born on the other side of the Alps, with the epidemic, this conspiratorial movement, convinced that the authorities are seeking to impose a “health dictatorship” in favor of the Covid, is in the process of federating in France. Policies encourage vaccination on Facebook, attacked! The starred chef Philippe Etchebest, favorable to the sanitary pass, attacked! The media are no exception, and neither are the prefectures, driving site moderators crazy.
If they are, for the moment, only a hundred attackers in France, their power of nuisance is increased tenfold when their 6,000 Italian brothers come as reinforcements, capable, all together, of flooding sites with thousands of comments. , taking turns day and night.
Many victims are silent, fearing a recurrence.
Even the Italian specialists on the subject do not spread themselves out.
“We avoid them as much as possible,” slips us one of them.
With us, they do a lot of damage.
"
Read also Covid-19, vaccines and fake news: Bigard, Lalanne, Henrion-Caude ... we disentangle the true from the false
Unstoppable the Vivi?
Did they think that one day, a handful of ordinary French citizens would bar their way, in a twist worthy of a spy novel?
In mid-May, their detractors, outraged by their methods, put themselves in order of battle, and far from being a farce, in the face of violence, they responded with humor.
This is how “the Vava warriors”, as “vaccinated vaccinators”, were born.
The collective, health professionals and teachers,
preferring to remain anonymous, agreed to speak for the first time.
Used to combating disinformation online, they know the conspiracy sphere by heart.
But the Vivi are radicals, they don't argue, they persecute.
So how do you counter them?
By scientific arguments?
Pain lost in the face of the irrational.
A crazy idea germinates in their minds: infiltrate the enemy camp!
An almost sectarian recruitment method
One of them, a computer scientist nicknamed "Complotist Deleter", knows how to spy on them.
"I then developed a surveillance robot, connected to their Telegram group, the secure messaging system where their actions are organized," says this geek.
He is able to track which digital raids are planned, against whom and when.
"
The Vava immediately warn future victims. “Hello, stay alert, an attack on your page is planned. Courage, ”they say, without ever introducing themselves. Their phone call does not prevent the aggression, but allows the moderators to organize themselves in numbers to delete the comments one by one.
Before spying on the opponent, Complotist Deleter first had to integrate their closed group under another nickname. An almost sectarian recruitment method, with "a recording of 1h30 of conspiratorial logorrhea and propaganda to listen to", delivered by a doctored voice, type Anonymous. The examination ends with a questionnaire. "I had never seen such a process of lobotomization", wonders the computer scientist, who discovers their world, "many activists of the extreme right", each with a registration number and "administrators, under anonymity, at the 'Italian accent. "
The mode of action is revealed to novices: copy and paste as fast as possible pre-written messages thanks to several fake accounts.
"This is called astroturfing, it gives the illusion of being numerous," analyzes Tristan Mendès France, specialist in radicalities.
A successful action makes them intoxicated, it devirtualizes their keyboard activism.
"
"We are dealing with a Nazi infiltrator"
Very quickly, the Vivi realize that there is a mole among them.
Who dared?
The warrior leaders, mad with rage, inform their troops: “We are dealing with a Nazi infiltrator, a psychopathic collaborationist who seeks to obstruct those who fight for the rights of all.
There is no way to stop us.
We the Vivi will defeat the evil that you and your Lords inflict on mankind.
"
Faithful soldiers, suddenly become suspects, are banished.
The witch hunt turns into vaudeville.
The culprits are writhing in laughter.
The Vava do not stop there, going so far as to organize schoolboy counter-raids.
Thus, when the Vivis write “This is a health dictatorship” everywhere on a page, they reply, just as quickly, by answering them: “It's not nice to have missed history lessons”, taking up the red VV, backwards, sign of the donkey's cap.
Read alsoCovid-19: can vaccines really make you magnetic?
For a week, the Vavas agreed to integrate their secret group to follow their response.
Hours a day of ultra-connected exchanges, from morning to night.
"I contacted all the attacked".
"Ouest-France is expensive".
"They are unleashed, they launched 15 attacks today."
"For now, we are not moving," they strafe.
The anti against the pros, a turf war in a virtual ocean.
“We know that we will not stop them, but we cannot leave the field open to them, loose Noémie
(Editor's note: all first names have been changed)
.
Besides, they tried to create another group when they realized that they were infiltrated and as a result… they are 21. ”Everyone burst out laughing.
"The QAnons, everyone took them for illuminated ..."
“We must occupy the field, continues Luis, seriously.
The government has completely failed by underestimating them, the elections promise a hell of a rousing.
»The danger, diverting more and more people from vaccination.
"They are indirectly responsible for the serious consequences of the Covid", complotist Deleter laments.
The Vivis also want to attack QR codes in restaurants.
Mélanie develops: "By replacing those displayed on the doors by others and crashing the system".
Will they ever switch to physical violence?
The Vava are silent.
Luis starts.
“Look at the QAnons, everyone thought they were illuminated and they ended up invading the Capitol.
"
