Tired of cashing in a mountain of insults on a daily basis in silence, more and more Quebec personalities are doing themselves justice by disseminating the hateful messages they receive to expose their author. One way to empower them, they hope, and ultimately stem online hatred.
“I still have 15 years to go. At least. Sorry ! “Wrote last month Patrick Lagacé on his Twitter account in response to a message from an Internet user who urged him to retire so as not to have to read” his big dirty tongue “.
Insults and even thinly veiled threats, the chronicler in Press receives tons of it. Several years ago, he decided not to ignore them any longer and to post them on his social networks when they “cross the line”. All this, always accompanied by an ironic commentary to make fun of the situation.
“There is an outlet function, I won’t deny that. Then, posting these messages also literally protects me. If you expose them, it leaves a mark, ”explains Patrick Lagacé in an interview. But what he would like above all, is to succeed in raising awareness among Internet users. “I hope, perhaps naively, that someone around the person sees their message and reasons them. Let his mother say to him: “But let’s see, what were you thinking while writing this?” “
Like him, more and more Quebec personalities have chosen to expose the authors of the hate messages they receive on the Web. Among the most active are the host Guy A. Lepage, the author Pierre-Yves McSween, the comedian Dany Turcotte and the actress Salomé Corbo.
It is urgent, underlines the latter, that Internet users understand that expressing themselves on Twitter, Facebook or any other social network is like shouting out their thoughts in the public square. “Do you really want to say those words to me, do you really want to insult me?” So take the megaphone and assume in front of everyone, even your sister, your mother, your cousin, ”says Salomé Corbo, reassembled.
She denounces the impunity of her detractors who hide behind their screens without thinking about what their words can cause. “I don’t think I’m doing a public lynching. I don’t encourage my 20,000 or so subscribers to attack them in return, she says. I just want to expose this person to their own tweet, to take stock of what they’re doing and realize it’s not okay to treat people like that. […] She would never say that to my face when she passed me in the street. “
Other chosen approach
Independent journalist Camille Lopez has also published insults and threats addressed to her in the past. A practice that she finally stopped, worried that the situation would turn against her. She also did not want to “contribute to the humiliation of an individual”.
“It’s easy to find someone with their photo and name. It can get so bad. You never know the psychological state of people. Some may be experiencing psychological distress. I didn’t want to be the last straw that would break the camel’s back, ”she says.
Rather, she now encourages anyone to report the most serious comments to the police. For the rest: it systematically blocks.
Occasionally, it still allows itself to relay the content of the letters sent to it while hiding the identity of the authors. “It is important that the public is aware of the extent of the phenomenon. […] Me, I just want to pass the message: this is what I can receive when I just do my job, ”she emphasizes, also seeing it as a way to“ ventilate ”.
Salomé Corbo admits having wondered if she was not just “adding harmful noise” by retweeting the hatred poured out by Internet users. “Is it really useful? I don’t have the answer, but it makes my life on Twitter easier, ”she says. Sometimes some apologize. The majority of them simply end up deleting their message or blocking the actress’s account.
Patrick Lagacé does not claim to have found THE best solution to stem hatred on social networks either. Some even attack him even more after his revealing publications by threatening to sue him for libel. He ends up blocking his most bitter detractors. “I have never blocked as many accounts as during the pandemic,” he says, with supporting figures. As of February 2020, around 1,600 people had been barred from the columnist’s Twitter. That number has since risen to over 5,200.
Joined to elucidate the question of the legality of publicly disseminating hate messages received in private, Pierre Trudel affirms that “nothing is opposed to it legally”. “It would be problematic if in the message, there were details of the private life of the person published without his consent. There, we are talking about offensive messages”, continues the professor of information law at the University of Montreal and columnist for The duty. He thinks it’s a good way to “put these people in front of their own behavior”.
Filter the hate
In an ideal world, users should be able to count on the leaders of Facebook and Twitter in this world to set up filters capable of recognizing any form of hatred and removing it from public discussions, believe the stakeholders contacted. But we are far from this ideal world at the moment.
“For them, a click is a click, let it go, bitter, Patrick Lagacé. Whether they are hate messages, comments not to believe in public health guidelines, or a legitimate criticism of an opinion, they do not make a difference and will not deprive themselves of a click. “
The columnist explains that he regularly tried to report hateful content, without success. He recalls the time he was sent a picture of a noose, hinting at him to hang himself. Or the one where he was written that he was “lucky to be still alive”. “For Twitter, it did not violate the terms of use of its platform,” adds the columnist.
” It’s the far west, social networks, adds Salomé Corbo. It takes someone to point the finger at unacceptable behavior. Collectively, it’s our job not to let this go, to educate some to better use social networks and above all to treat people better. “