PSG denies having set up “a digital army” to harm personalities including Kylian Mbappé

A second wave of hype in 24 hours for PSG. After the club’s football adviser Luis Campos denied, on Tuesday October 11, Kylian Mbappé’s desire to leave, relayed in the press a few hours from the draw against Benfica Lisbon (1-1), the capital club faces a new controversy.

According to an investigation revealed by Mediapart, Paris Saint-Germain instructed a communication agency to create fake accounts to carry out discredit campaigns on Twitter between 2018 and 2020. Among the targets would be personalities, journalists, team players, like Kylian Mbappé, but also a young woman who accused Neymar of rape in the past.

Contacted by AFP, PSG denied “firmly Mediapart’s allegations”. “PSG is an international brand that works constantly with agencies to promote and celebrate the achievements of the club, its employees and its partners, like all businesses. The club has never contracted with an agency to harm anyone whether it be”explained the leader of the French championship.

According to the report of the Digital Big Brother company, registered in Barcelona and controlled by the Franco-Tunisian businessman Lotfi Bel Had, consulted by Mediapart, this agency has deployed “an army of trolls [messages provocants postés sur les réseaux sociaux pour susciter une polémique]“ at the service of the club. In the balance sheet of his activity on behalf of PSG for the 2018/2019 season, it is written that this digital army “was supervised by the PSG communication department, headed at the time by Jean-Martial Ribes“. The latter left the club last May for the communication department of a subsidiary of the luxury giant LVMH. The strategy revolved around an account “reference“, Paname Squad, which presents itself on Twitter as a “collective of Paris Saint-Germain enthusiasts“.