You may not have known about this application, but Valérie Pécresse has just given it an unexpected spotlight. Monday January 13, 2025, the president of the Île-de-France region announced her intention to file a complaint against the Akha applicationwhich allows you to report controllers in public transport and trains. As a result, the number of downloads is increasing.
A practical application for fraudsters
Presented as the Waze from fraudstersthe Akha application is based on the same participatory operation as the road navigation application, but focuses its action on public transport lines, particularly the RATP network. The idea is simple: allow users to report incidents likely to affect traffic in real time. Unsurprisingly, the initiative quickly found another interest: that of list current checks on the Ile-de-France network. So, when we open the application, we can find several indications on the presence of controllers in metros, trains and stations: “Controllers at Auteuil gate”, “Full controllers 272 direction Argenteuil“, we could read this morning.
Although practical for users, the practice is also illegal according to article L2242-10 of the Transport Code which indicates that “causes him to disseminate, by any means whatsoever and whatever the medium, any message likely to signal the presence of controllers […] is punishable by two months of imprisonment and a fine of 3,750 euros”.
A great example of the Streisand effect
By wanting at all costs to ban an application intended for “delinquents and criminals” which she holds partly responsible for more than 700 million euros of fraud annuallyValérie Pécresse above all offered Akha an unexpected communication boost. The application, launched in September 2023, had only a few thousand downloads and had until then passed under the radar of the authorities. In recent days, she has accumulated more than 10,000 installations on the Google Playstore.
For her part, Valérie Pécresse persists and signs. The regional president indicated that she “put the owner of the app, Google Play and App Store on notice to immediately close these features”. The mobility organizing authority will also file a complaint: “ Fraud is stealing and transport security is our priority!”, recalls the politician. The fact remains that the application was still accessible and perfectly operational this morning. During our journey, several reported incidents could be verified in real time.
On social networks, the application took advantage of this unexpected spotlight to share a crowdfunding page, aiming to extend its scope to the rest of the public transport networks in major cities around the world. More than checking transport tickets, it indicates its objective is to report not only traffic disruptions, but also the presence of pickpockets and harassers.
???? To not miss any news on the Journal du Geek, subscribe on Google News. And if you love us, we have a newsletter every morning.
