The case, which began during a ZEvent, highlights the harassment that female streamers can suffer on social networks.
This January 21, streamer Ultia was in court to face those who have been harassing her for several years. A trial at a time when content creators are demanding to be taken seriously on the subject.
“Do we say Ultia or Ulssia?” launches the president, who describes himself as “not much on social networks”. In front of him, two young men in their twenties and a 40-year-old man, all accused of having made sexist, insulting remarks and death threats, as part of massive cyberharassment.
A major absentee singled out during the trial
In 2021, when Ultia participates in ZEvent and she rants following the behavior deemed problematic by Inoxtag, also in the casting, with one of her guests, a torrent of hatred takes place on social networks, but also on the Twitch platform.
“I have received a multitude of tweets from ZEvent, where people call me a whore, a slut, a crazy person,” explains Ultia, at the helm.
Since then, Ultia has regularly suffered waves of hate messages based on certain events or comments from streamers, including Pfut, who was banned in January 2022, the streaming platform accusing him of having participated in the harassment of the content creator.
To his right, defendants, only one of whom, already convicted in a sexual harassment case, is represented by a lawyer. His counsel, failing in his request for a psychiatric expertise – his previous one dating back to 2018, three years before the facts – and therefore a dismissal, speaks of a man with a “significant psychiatric problem” and citing remarks reproached “no threatening, non-violent. Nazim H. is suspected of being the author of sexist remarks of a sexual nature: “You like cocks, that's clear”, “you show your true slutty nature”.
“At the beginning it was okay, but now I'm starting to get exhausted, I've withdrawn into myself,” Ultia confides in response to these repeated remarks at the audience. “When I pass by a group of young people, I’m afraid they will recognize me and not like me.”
“I'm tired, I've already spoken to three police officers, a gendarme, three psychiatrists, not to mention the meetings with my lawyer. I'm exhausted, I want it to stop,” says Ultia, very moved by the president of the court.
A “very strong” emotional impact
For someone who does not want to be seen as “the defender of the cause of women”, the initial situation was just not normal: “Everyone should find it abnormal, and yet, these five minutes where I am surprised to I am criticized for the situation on a daily basis.”
She describes a situation that had a “very strong” impact on her mind, but also on her personal and professional life: “Today I am being followed, finally, because I have relieved myself of a burden that took so much from me time and energy.”
Proof in hand, she confirms having been excluded from certain events, including the show Popcorn, Domingo's successful talk show: “He did not want to accept what my presence implies. It's a double punishment.” An absence which causes a financial loss, around 250 euros per appearance depending on the guest's profile.
-In tears, Ultia also recounts how this harassment could have had an impact on those close to her: “I want the people who put me through this to have a decision commensurate with what I was the victim of. I also want it to be able to help other women, so that we can better assess the repercussions of such harassment.”
“She’s like a friend”
“We can't express ourselves freely on the internet,” explains Nazim H., 39, convinced that Ultia's rant is a set-up by ZEvent.
“There is nothing serious in what I said,” he says sheepishly.
“She’s like a friend,” explains Nazim H., justifying this name with his own way of playing: by looking at her. “One day, she came live with a plate of legs and a sausage,” he wants to clarify when it comes to explaining why he accused her of “liking dicks”. He then gets annoyed, facing the president, refusing to see his own interpretation: “She calls herself a feminist, but she compares a sausage with a man's penis.” Faced with this accusation, the court clarified that the comments were made by certain chat users and not by the streamer.
Described by his lawyer as “friendless”, “lonely”, he says he is impulsive “because my psychologist told me so”. His parents, in the room, are far from agreeing with their son's comments. Faced with insistent questions from the judge and the civil party's lawyer, the defendant then became seriously angry: “Here, it's not life,” explains his lawyer, “his life is in his room , he has no hobbies.”
Nathan F., who “did not mean” the rape threats of which he is suspected, says he wants to apologize. He then explains that it all started when the streamer Pfut exclaimed “she’s breaking my balls” about Ultia. He also challenges the issue of cyberharassment, evoking a world made up of insults on social networks: “I think I have trivialized that.”
The “shame” of being in court
“It pains me to see that the harassment continues,” explains the 21-year-old young man, who says he spends more than ten hours in front of screens and lives in a “violent” family context. “I do not consider myself a harasser, and my messages were not harassment.”
Edis M. for his part confesses to “being ashamed” of having made death threats and finding himself facing court this Tuesday, January 21. “I offer my sincere apologies to Ultia, it is certain that it will never happen again,” explains the man who has little memory of comments dating back to 2022, now seeking to work in the field of finance after having obtained a master's degree.
The 25-year-old claims to have “questioned himself” since his time in police custody.
At the end of the trial, it is the problem of cyberharassment that is now being brought to the forefront of public debate. But also, to a lesser extent, the consequences of comments seen by their authors as inconsistent at the time, and realizing before the president of the court that they had marked their victims, the high point of a four-year-old case. years.
The prosecution requested up to 2 years of suspended imprisonment for the oldest of the defendants, Nazim H. with an obligation of care, twelve months suspended and an awareness course on online hatred for the youngest. All this, combined with a ban on contact for a period of five years. Deliberated on February 12.
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