Former local elected, Céline Pina is an essayist and activist. She is the founder of "Viv (r) e la République", she has also published Guilty Silence (Kero, 2016).
No one has forgotten Mila, this courageous young girl who no longer has the right to a normal life because Islamists have re-established the crime of blasphemy on our soil.
For having said bluntly what she thought of Islam on the web, which in France is perfectly legitimate, she finds herself threatened with death by people quite capable of taking action.
Since this story, the teenager has hid and the State struggles to provide her with a protective framework and does not care enough about her future.
Out of school twice in a row, the young girl seems quite isolated and social networks are one of her only areas of freedom, although she is hunted there by perfectly organized Islamists who have made her a symbol and a trophy.
So Sunday, back on Twitter, Mila was chased by an organized pack while her post was very innocuous.
Well, what do you think the social network did?
He suspended Mila, accusing her of practicing what she keeps going through and destroyed her life: harassment.
We can wonder what game the social network is playing and ask ourselves the question of the consequences of moderation rules that stigmatize a victim in order to better gratify his torturers.
The story is disheartening.
It starts off nicely.
Mila finds one of her childhood drawings and posts it.
Hundreds of hate messages followed, promising him rape and various whatnot.
According to Ouest France, “
the insulting comments come mostly from anonymous accounts.
But all claim their connection to a mysterious user, named FC Sinje.
What happens here is well known to all those who have a small or important notoriety on the networks: certain organized groups chase them and give each other the word to swarm in on their target in packs.
The method is known and informed and of course none of the leaders of Twitter or Facebook is unaware of it.
However, following this organized harassment campaign, Twitter, sheltering behind the logic of the algorithms, chose to censor the victim and sent a congratulatory message to one of the persecutors online.
We can therefore really wonder what game the social network is playing and ask the question of the consequences of moderation rules which stigmatize a victim in order to better gratify his torturers.
Twitter ended up conceding an "
error of moderation
", but does not seem to have acted against this organized gang, or even against the accounts which persecute Mila.
Why such a refusal of action?
To read also:
"From the Mila affair to the State affair"
The question arises all the more since the network, very attached to its democratic image, did not hesitate to censor, in the name of morality, Donald Trump while he was still President of the United States.
Would that mean that according to Twitter, calling for rape and violence against a 17-year-old girl, like organizing virtual raids, poses no problem of "
community standard
"?
Would that mean that he exhibited a false courage of trampling on Donal Trump, when he was already on the ground, to offer himself an image of courage and dignity while behind the scenes he lets stalkers and haters lead the way? dance?
In any case, it looks a lot like it.
For the rest, our political class is still not very courageous, but Marlène Schiappa and Cédric O have protested and demanded accounts from Twitter.
The problem is that even if one can believe in the sincerity of the reaction of the two ministers, it is a safe bet that it will not change much.
Often this government believes that to act is to tweet and leaves it there.
He does not even have the courage to consider that he can retaliate against the American network, or even to demand anything from Twitter.
Mila has just demonstrated that the censorship exercised by Twitter towards Donald Trump was not democratic and that no principle guided it.
And yet, if what was done against Mila resulted in a proper dismantling of the logic of the raids by making this story an example, handing over the identities of the stalkers to the police and holding them to account in court. , we would start to breathe a little better.
But you probably won't have to rely on the government or twitter.
Both prefer communication to accountability.
To read also:
Goldnadel: "Twitter is an intolerant but selective censor"
Once again, Mila acts as the revealer of the mediocrity of power, of all powers.
She has just demonstrated that the censorship exercised by Twitter towards Donald Trump was not democratic and that no ideal or principle guided it.
It was just a move to give the impression of having a conscience without paying the cost.
Because when it comes to defending a frail young girl threatened with death by an ideology carried by rich and powerful men and States, relayed by fanaticized and radicalized Internet users who act in gangs, then there, violence is accepted.
Number rules, even if the ideology of the Islamists has nothing to envy to that defended by Hitler, no one can be found to close their accounts.
Twitter executives, so scrupulous about waging the fight against QAnon, may even turn a blind eye to death and rape threats if they are made in the name of Islam or the messages invoke The "
alleged Islamophobia
" of the victim.
And there, the powerful Twitter suddenly becomes unable to block accounts.
This new case is not a Mila affair, but a Twitter affair.