A list of 4300 names.
This Tuesday, the magazine "The Intercept" published a document written by Facebook listing the people, organizations or groups considered "dangerous" by the company.
It serves as a reference for moderators of the social network to clean up comments, accounts and publications associated with or refer to it.
The names in it are divided into several categories: "terrorism", "criminality", "hatred", "militarized social movement" and "armed non-state person or group".
Among them, about twenty French users.
The undated document relies heavily on U.S. government classifications.
Of the French listed, half are jihadists, the other half are personalities, small groups or far-right movements.
Overview.
Well-known small groups
The list unveiled by "The Intercept" distinguishes organizations on the one hand, and individuals on the other.
Among the French, the first category only refers to extreme right-wing groups.
This is the case with Equality and Reconciliation.
This political association, created by Alain Soral in the 2000s, was "one of the flagships of the fascosphere" and represents "the revolutionary right", explains Benjamin Tainturier, doctoral student at the Médialab de Sciences-po, specialist in movements far right.
Revealed: Facebook's secret blacklist of “Dangerous Individuals and Organizations” https://t.co/yhpvH7B6kH by @samfbiddle
- The Intercept (@theintercept) October 12, 2021
The group brings together many movements that feed on international conflicts and conspiracy and highlight personalities like Dieudonné, Joe the Raven, Farida Belghoul ... Facebook is obviously not the only one to have had it in its sights, since YouTube removed two channels in summer 2020: ERTV Official (for Equality and Reconciliation TV) and ERTV International.
Another well-known name which is found in the list: the GUD (Union Defense Group).
This far-right student association, in existence for decades - which became the Social Bastion, itself dissolved in 2019 - offered above all a network for young activists, who then found themselves, for some, in political parties (including the RN).
The Identitaires and its training reserved for young Identity Generation are also on the list.
The first, symbolized by the boar, "flirts with neopaganism (a movement advocating a return to the land, to myths and to Nordic roots) and neoskinheads", details Benjamin Tainturier.
The second was a student group - before its dissolution in spring 2021 - which stood out for its actions and spectacular happenings, especially against migrants.
Read also Identity generation, at the heart of the uninhibited ultra-right
Another French name: Participative Democracy.
This is a platform administered by "the openly anti-Semitic intellectual Boris Le Lay, who went into exile in Japan", explains the specialist in far-right movements.
As Liberation clarified in an article from 2020, this site - where racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic articles swarmed - was dereferenced by Google.
French justice also demanded its closure.
Behind its name, hides a historic speech in the radical right according to which the Republic would confiscate its word to the people, since the power would always be exerted by the same caste.
As Benjamin Tainturier recalls, Participatory Democracy is known to have incited to carry out online raids against people, in particular a journalist from Lyon.
Minority or already dissolved groups
In the list also appears Aime et Sers, an “openly neo-Nazi” group, observes Benjamin Tainturier, but which only brings together a small number of people.
Its name refers to MSR (Social Revolutionary Movement), a fascist-inspired party formed, in large part, from former members of the terrorist movement La Cagoule.
Another name on the list despite a dissolution that dates back to 2005: Elsass Korps. If it is listed in the “hate” category, it is additionally referred to as a “music group”. Nothing abnormal, since it was, officially, an identity rock group. In fact, it brought together around thirty members and a hundred openly neo-Nazi sympathizers.
To this list of French far-right groups are added two movements, which have branches in other countries: Greenline Front and Defend Europe. The first deliberately displays its paganist ideology, which advocates a return to nature, the forest, multiplies the references to Nordic mythology and “flirts with certain thoughts of the environmentalists of the radical right: the reflection does not relate to the planet in it- even, but rather on the protection of the territory, because there is a link between man and his land, ”explains Benjamin Tainturier.
The second, Defend Europe, is the name of a mission led by identity activists from several European countries whose stated goal, as its name suggests, is to “defend” the borders of the Old Continent from the arrival of migrants.
"It is a very traditional speech of the radical right, anti-immigrationist, anti-cosmopolitanism", decrypts the doctoral student at the Médialab of Sciences-po.
Far right and jihadism
In addition to groups, the list maintained by Facebook moderators also includes names of individuals. Twelve of them are French. First there is Alain Soral, founder of Equality and Reconciliation, mentioned above. Openly anti-Semitic and denial, he is also known for his conspiratorial positions. There is also Hervé Ryssen, condemned multiple times and finally imprisoned in 2020 - he left last spring - for his anti-Semitic and negationist remarks. "It's interesting that these two names stand out, because they are two representatives of the revolutionary right, who defend the idea of a world plot in which the elites would play a role", specifies the specialist Benjamin. Tainturier.
The other people on the list are all listed in the “terrorism” category, since they are French jihadists. A number of them are dead or presumed dead. This is the case of Maxime Hauchard, known to be one of Daesh's executioners. It is also the case of the brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi, responsible for the attack of January 7, 2015 against Charlie Hebdo, as well as of Amedy Coulibaly, who committed, the following day, the attack of Montrouge then the catch of hostage in the Hyper Cacher at Porte de Vincennes. But also Salim Benghalem, one of the alleged sponsors of the 2015 attacks, suspected of having a link with those of November 13, executioner of the Islamic State and potential jailer of the four French journalists detained in Syria for 10 months in 2013 .
Read also Terrorism: Joe Asperman, the mysterious French Daesh targeted by the United States
Two big recruiters of jihadists, the Niçois Omar Diaby - known as Omar Omsen - and the Breton Émilie König, also appear on the list.
There is also registered Joe Asperman, considered by the United States as a terrorist specialist in chemical weapons who remains a mystery for the French authorities, as well as Peter Chérif.
Arrested in Yemen in 2018, this member of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is considered a “veteran” of jihad for having been one of the first French to join Iraq and then Syria.
He is accused of having ordered the Charlie Hebdo attack - but was arrested too late to be in the box of the defendants at the time of the trial, in 2020.
A list that raises questions
For Me Camille Alligand, criminal law lawyer, the very principle of establishing a list of users is "totally arbitrary and therefore disproportionately infringes freedom of expression". In addition, the lawyer believes that the risk of its use is "to generate over-moderation and a form of private censorship a priori, escaping judicial control."
Indeed, “it should be remembered that several provisions in French law can lead to the withdrawal or censorship of publications deemed illegal, continues Camille Alligand. However, the judicial process takes a certain time, it is necessary to carry out an analysis of the unlawful character or not of the remarks and to ensure that the interference with the freedom of expression remains necessary, appropriate and proportionate. By such a deletion, Facebook judges a priori of the manifestly unlawful nature of the potential publications of an account. "
The General Directorate for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control already denounced, in 2016, "the discretionary power to withdraw content or information published by the Internet user on the network" provided by Facebook. Thus, the social network can justify the deletion of an account by non-compliance with its Declaration of rights and responsibility.
The American company defends its policy by explaining that "terrorist content has no place on Facebook".
"We delete it as soon as we become aware of it", specifies the social network, which ensures "investing massively in people and technology to quickly find terrorists and positions that support terrorism, before people report it to us" .
In recent years, Mark Zuckerberg's company has quadrupled the number of people working on safety and security, and has developed "artificial intelligence technology to proactively and faster detect harmful content."
Facebook claims to have deleted 7.1 million terrorist content in the world between April and June 2020, against 1.9 million in 2018.