A worrying increase.
In 2023, the Pharos platform, which allows illicit content to be reported online, received 211,543 reports compared to 175,924 in 2022, an increase mainly due to anti-Semitic content, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Tuesday before the Senate.
The reports on Pharos mainly concerned "pedophile content or child abuse" while those relating to the apology of terrorism were "in fact quite few", added Gérald Darmanin before the Law Committee.
[THREAD]
We are strengthening the actions undertaken by the ministry @Interieur_Gouv in order to fight against anti-Semitic acts which have been on the rise since October 7, and more broadly, to fight against anti-religious acts ⤵️
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) February 27, 2024
But the increase is "90% due to anti-Semitic reports found on Internet platforms", assured the minister, deploring that "we cannot make the big platforms listen to reason" which "obviously must intensify their work of moderating hateful content.”
Less moderation on
On this point, “we have a very significant problem, particularly with the X-Twitter platform” since “there is now much less moderation with the new policy of its leader”.
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“75% of apologetic or anti-Semitic content was on Twitter,” insisted the minister, regretting “that there is not the equivalent of Arcom for social networks”, which are “sometimes more effective in propaganda than some news channels.”
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Reporting “more than 12,000 reports” for anti-Semitism on the Pharos platform “in connection with the conflict” between Israel and Hamas since October 7, Gérald Darmanin deplored a “particularly dramatic” year with “an increase which has no equivalent” of anti-Semitic acts (+284% to 1,676, as Crif revealed at the end of January).
At the start of 2024, anti-Semitic acts experienced a “relative decline”, assured the minister, without giving figures.
79 foreigners expelled
Last year, anti-Christian acts fell by 7% to 854 and anti-Muslim acts increased by 29% to 242. But "there is also a hidden continent of anti-Muslim acts" which are "often" the work of " ultra-right activists,” he said during the questions and answers.
Some 4,500 religious sites were protected last year, which mobilized nearly 6 million euros (compared to 4 in previous years), including 4.3 million for Jewish places and 504,000 euros for Christian places. .
The amount devoted to the protection of Muslim places (nearly 570,000 euros) will be doubled in 2024, recalled Gérald Darmanin.
Finally “we expelled 79 foreigners responsible for acts of apology for terrorism or calls for hatred,” added the minister.
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Deploring an “atmospheric anti-Semitism”, he also considered that “the complacency that we have all had collectively with the Muslim Brotherhood is culpable”.