“I took a potato when the hatred that I suffered on the internet went in front of my mother”. In her Paris apartment, content creator Lena Mahfouf (also known as Lena Situations) looks serious. On Monday August 1, a day before the opening of her concept store and the launch of her summer vlogging marathon, she posted a video on Youtube to talk about the cyberbullying she says she has been the victim of since last summer.
It all started a year ago, in August. Every summer for five years, she has filmed a video every day to share her daily life with her subscribers. But one morning, she finds herself at the heart of the debates on Twitter and the insults about her begin to fuse. “She didn’t start from nothing and she likes to pretend that she is”, writes a “hater” on the social network, to cite just one example without vulgarity.
Her career, her way of life, her physique, her personality… In the weeks that followed, all the elements of the young woman’s life were subject to criticism and nastiness for a band of ill-intentioned Internet users.
But the worst c she’s ever been the child of the people mdrrr she lived all her life in Neuilly, her parents were able to pay her a school at 20k, she wasn’t very rich either but she didn’t start from nothing and she likes to do too much like she does https://t.co/kOasPLcdNT
— fangirl first human second (@reinedumalaise) August 19, 2021
While she was invited to the Ballon d’Or ceremony at the end of 2021, Lena Mahfouf announces that she will not participate since she will not be in France at that time. A new wave of hatred swept over the young woman, even more violent. “I thought I was mentally prepared”explains the one who started the videos on YouTube in 2015. But from the start of the harassment episodes, “As soon as I uttered a sentence, I said to myself ‘How are they going to make this a new topic? (…) What will they answer to that?“explains the youtubeuse, anticipating all the next waves of hatred that she “can’t control”.
Gradually, what was happening on social media spilled over into real life. Insults and threats began to target his relatives, friends and family. “It went beyond the virtual world, to reach my mother’s house”, she explains, adding that the latter had to cut her telephone line, as she was receiving hateful calls. Eggs thrown on her doormat, insulting messages sent to her grandmother who lives in Algeria… Lena Mahfouf has been chaining situations of harassment and humiliating experiences for a year.
She explains, for example, that several groups came to ask her for a photo in the street, with a smile on their face. Then, once the camera is on, they start a video in which they start insulting him, in front of his eyes.
This moral harassment, in life or on the web, Lena is not the only one to suffer it, it is also the case for many content creators today. “We know (…) I know the rules of the game (…) When you make videos based on the Lifestyle, you will be attacked on very personal things, since you show very personal thingsshe explains. I’m complaining about something that very few people can understand, I feel like I’m totally out of touch with reality.”
A few months ago, completely exhausted, Lena decides to go to Los Angeles to get away from France and its detractors. “There are a lot of things that I can no longer share for fear of being killed in the street, or worse that something will happen to my loved ones, to my brother”, she confides to her friend Marcus, in a video extract where she is in tears in her bed. Three months of break to regain strength and restore her self-confidence. The one who made several videos a week a few years ago has only made seven since last summer.
At the end of her video, she motivates her subscribers not to let it go and to fight together to fight against this massive and dangerous cyberbullying. “Fortunately I was well surrounded, otherwise I don’t know where I will be today”, she says. to her haters, on the other hand, she has only one thing to say: “I invite you all to go fuck yourselves. We are going to have a great summer”.
This Tuesday is also a big day in the life of youtuber Lena Mahfouf: she opens her concept store in Paris where she will sell her clothing line and begins her month-long marathon of vlogs that she has been doing every year for six years. year.