a judge investigates accusations of complicity targeting the social network

The influencer denounces the cyberharassment carried out by the rapper Booba against her and the responsibility of Twitter, renamed X in the summer of 2023, in this smear campaign which triggered death threats.

Is social network X complicit in the cyberharassment of Magali Berdah? This is what the influencer, head of the Shauna Events agency, believes, who filed a complaint in November 2023 for complicity in aggravated moral harassment. This complaint, filed with the constitution of a civil party, gave rise to the opening of a judicial investigation in July, franceinfo learned from the Paris prosecutor's office on Wednesday December 4. This means that an investigating judge is investigating the facts, which date back to spring 2022, when the businesswoman denounced a cyberharassment campaign against her, triggered by the rapper Booba.

“We take note of this opening of information which will allow the justice system to assess the role of platform X in the cyberharassment suffered by Magali Berdah, and to rule on the criminal liability of the platforms”reacted the three lawyers of the influencer. Magali Berdah had already filed a complaint in April 2023 against Twitter, renamed X three months later. However, the open investigation had been closed, “on the grounds that no offense was sufficiently serious”, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to franceinfo on Wednesday. In November 2023, the businesswoman again filed a complaint against the social network, this time with the constitution of a civil party, and obtained referral to an investigating magistrate, added the prosecution.

According to our information, in the complaint filed in November 2023, the social network is accused of having “intentionally continued to supply” ses “services” to Booba, who used his Twitter account “to publish denigrating and hateful messages, and to incite” to the cyberharassment of Magali Berdah. Twitter, now X, is accused of refusing to suspend the rapper's account, even though the social network was “perfectly informed” and what “multiple reports” had been “addressed” to company officials. The influencer believes that the social network allowed Booba “to commit the offense of aggravated harassment” and he therefore surrenders “accomplice of these facts”.

In this case, Magali Berdah filed a first complaint to denounce cyberharassment on May 25, 2022, the starting point for the opening of several procedures. Booba, dhis real name Elie Yaffa, has been indicted and placed under judicial supervision since October 2023 for aggravated moral harassment. The rapper has not yet been tried. On the other hand, nine months ago, the Paris criminal court sentenced 28 people, mainly for aggravated cyberstalking, considering that the facts “stem from the rapper's publications of which the defendants were fully aware”.