Valérie Pécresse wants to close Akha, an application which signals the presence of RATP and SNCF controllers

Valérie Pécresse started the week with a sickle in her hand. After her proposal to eliminate the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe) this Monday morning at the microphone of France Inter, the president of the Île-de-France region showed herself determined to close the Akha application in a post on X in the afternoon. The former minister said to herself “scandalized» by this tool which allows its users to report, among other things, the presence of RATP controllers in Ile-de-France transport. “Shamelessshe writes, Akha facilitates transport fraud by locating controllers and security forces. Not to mention the help it provides to delinquents and criminals…» She explains that she has given notice to the owner of the application to close it immediately, as well as the Google Play and Apple Store application stores. At the same time, Île-de-France Mobility (IDFM), the organizing authority for Ile-de-France transport, will file a complaint. “Fraud is stealing and transport security is our priority!», concludes Valérie Pécresse.

As the regional president rightly points out, “akha” (pronounce the “kh” like the Spanish “j”, close to the French “r”) is an onomatopoeia commonly used in the world of drug dealing to signal the arrival of law enforcement. It means “attention” in Arabic. “The new watchman got a tattoo of “22, akha, there’s the BAC”», sings the rapper Booba in his song AZERTY. Akha is in a way the Waze public transport and works with an interactive map on which each user, geolocated, can make three types of reports: delays, insecurity (to report the presence of pickpockets or harassers for example) and a corresponding “akha” report to the presence of controllers. This third type of reporting is never really explained or assumed by the founder of the application, Sid-Ahmed Mekhiche. “We understood each other“, he regularly says with a smirk on the application’s TikTok account.

“A daily mobility problem”

If he is so discreet, it is because reporting the presence of controllers is prohibited by law. Article L2242-10 of the Transport Code provides 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' imprisonment and a fine of 3,750 euros“. Contacted, Sid-Ahmed Mekhiche had not yet responded to our requests.

Almost 26 years old and based in Issou in Yvelines, he calls himself Sidox on the Internet and has obtained a diploma in web engineering. He now works as a software engineer for the IT consultancy Cellenza. On the app’s website, it presents Akha as “a community», et «the response of a former student, commuter, to a daily mobility problem“. And to continue: “For years, the daily lives of public transport users in France have continued to deteriorate. Every day, videos go viral on the internet reporting overcrowded trains, attacks and problems of all kinds. At the same time, costs continue to increase. It is in this emergency situation that the AKHA project will give a voice to all these citizens who depend on these train, metro or RER networks.”

Launched at the start of 2024 and driven by events such as the Olympic Games or strikes, the application has found its audience: the young engineer recently claimed 130,000 users, as well as the top of the ranking of the most popular applications on the Apple Store ahead of ChatGPT. A fundraising campaign was launched on the Ulule crowdfunding platform. Nearly 1,500 euros have been raised to date thanks to 36 contributions, out of a target of 3,000 euros. The founder would like to use the money to “grow» et «offer an ever more advanced product“. If Valérie Pécresse is not right about her project.