An investigating judge in Paris has been investigating X since July for “complicity in aggravated moral harassment” after a complaint from the former “popess of influencers”, Magali Berdah, the Paris prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday December 4.
The businesswoman is in conflict with the rapper Booba, indicted since October 2023 in another case in Paris for cyber-harassment against him. She accuses the social network of having knowingly continued to give the artist access to its services, “thus allowing him to harass her”according to a source close to the matter at Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Magali Berdah had already filed a complaint in April 2023 against Twitter, but the investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor's office had been closed, “on the grounds that no offense was sufficiently serious”explained the public prosecutor. In November 2023, Mme Berdah again filed a complaint, this time with a civil party, and obtained referral to an investigating magistrate. This judicial information must allow “up to justice to assess the role of platform X in the cyber-harassment suffered by Magali Berdah and to rule on the criminal liability of the platforms”estimated the plaintiff's lawyers, Antonin Gravelin-Rodriguez, Rachel-Flore Pardo and Elie Touitou, contacted by AFP.
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Alerts and formal notices ignored
The period covered by Magali Berdah's complaint extends before and after the purchase of the platform by American billionaire Elon Musk. But critics accusing the network of serving as an echo chamber for online hate and harassment didn't wait for this change in ownership. However, it is rare for proceedings for cases of online harassment to go as far as the French criminal justice system.
In civil matters, Twitter was notably taken to court in France by six associations from 2020, and ordered in March 2023 by the Court of Cassation to detail its means of combating online hatred. And since its takeover by Mr. Musk, accusations linked to the lack of moderation of the social network have multiplied. According to the Australian regulator, the new owner of the network has fired some 1,200 people responsible for moderating content.
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The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), an organization fighting the spread of hate online, has repeatedly pointed out the platform's lack of reaction to the spread of hateful content. In the case of Magali Berdah, the social network is notably accused by the complainant of having ignored the alerts sent on the moderation platform or the formal notices formulated by its lawyers, according to the source close to the case.
Twenty-eight people sentenced in Paris
In addition to his indictment for cyber-harassment against Magali Berdah, Booba, who now lives in the United States, is also placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness for acts of death threats and concealment of an offense of invasion of privacy. In this case, the rapper is notably accused of “at least 487 messages on social networks aimed directly” Mme Berdah between May 2022 and May 2023, according to elements of the investigation consulted by AFP.
The rapper strongly contests this. Rather, he explains that he launched himself, alongside a collective “help for victims of influencers”in a crusade against those he calls the “influvoleurs”denouncing multiple scams against Internet users. Some of his publications have received wide attention and are fueling a wider debate on the lucrative influencer sector. But his methods of denunciation call into question justice. Because the rapper uses, among other things, personal attacks and unsourced videos, notably since May 2022 against Magali Berdah, founder of the influencer agency Shauna Events.
In addition to the investigation targeting Booba, twenty-eight people were sentenced in Paris, accused of having participated in cyber-harassment “in a pack” by Magali Berdah, particularly on Twitter. For his part, Booba also filed a complaint against Mme Berdah for deceptive marketing practices. The preliminary investigation was dismissed in March by the Paris prosecutor's office. Despite Shauna Events' financial difficulties, Magali Berdah announced at the end of November the launch of an international agency on the same model.
