End of the game for the creator of the “AKHA” application which pointed out the presence of controllers on the Ile-de-France public transport networks.
According to information from the point, the 26 -year -old computer scientist, without a criminal record, was arrested this week at his home and then placed in police custody by the investigators of the brigade to combat cybercrime of the Cyber and Financial Subsidance of Parisian judicial police.
The young man, based in the Yvelines first said that the word “Akha” had no particular meaning. “Akha” means “attention” in Arabic language. On LinkedIn and Instagram, the founder of the smartphone application claimed more than 130,000 users. He said that the app “allows users to report quickly, and easily, any problem encountered when traveling, such as a failure, delay or inappropriate behavior”.
IDFM and RATP complaints
In fact, most user reports consisted in reporting the presence of RATP or SNCF controllers. The computer scientist would have finally recognized that it was the only reason for creating his application.
At the end of his police custody, the administrator was presented to a magistrate of the Paris court for a summons on prior recognition of guilt scheduled for next March.
The controversy around this application arose almost 15 days ago. The FO-RATP union of control agents of the Régie (GPSR) has split a message against this increasingly popular app. “When are you going to ban this application, which signals the controllers on the network?” Cost of fraud more than 700 million per year. Had posted the union on network X (ex Twitter).
-The next day, Valérie Pécresse, the president of Ile-de-France Mobilités, the Organizing Transport Authority had announced to file a complaint, just like the RATP. The “AKHA” application constitutes a criminal offense according to the transport code.
The application code destroys and the domain name entered
The Savary law of 2016 and article L2242-10 of the transport code, provides that “the fact of distributing, by any means whatsoever and whatever the medium, any message likely to point out the presence controllers or security officers employed or commissioned by a public transport operator of travelers is punished with two months' imprisonment and a fine of 3,750 euros ”.
Very quickly after the complaint deposits, the application was deleted from the Google Playstore then from the Apple App Store.
This Friday, Valérie Pécresse reacted a message on the social network X (ex Twitter) to thank “the police for his responsiveness in the arrest of the creator of the” AKHA “application and the closure of the site”.
Internet users who had recorded the app in their laptop before withdrawing the download platforms could still access it at the start of the week. But this Friday, the reports that are still broadcast on Akha has become relatively “illegible”. The messages indicating the presence of controllers are now displayed on a white background and more on the Ile-de-France transport networks map. Investigators destroyed the application code in the administrator's computer and domain name was seized.
