The real influencers | Using social media for good

(Viviane Lalande, Mathieu Nadeau-Vallée and the Genesse sisters) Despite all the bad things that are said about social networks, some people use them for good. Mathieu Nadeau-Vallée debunks fake news on COVID-19, the Genesse sisters — Marie-Emmanuelle and Florence-Olivia — popularized a hand sign that saved women’s lives and Viviane Lalande broadcasts popular science videos that have a monstrous success. This is what allowed them to carve out a place in our list.

Wear white in summer? Are animals right-handed? What are toilet paper patterns used for? Since 2013, Viviane Lalande has been answering all kinds of playful questions with a rigorous and scientific approach. She posts the answers on her Scilabus channel, on YouTube.

“When I do chronicles on television, I don’t get feedback. With the videos on YouTube, I receive hundreds of comments that allow me to improve,” explains the mechanical engineer.

Scilabus is followed by 450,000 subscribers. It would be the French-language science popularization channel run by a woman with the largest audience on YouTube. Viviane Lalande also posts content on Twitter and Instagram.

« Sur Instagram, il y a une relation qui s’instaure avec et entre les abonnés et je trouve ça très agréable », dit celle qui a quitté la France pour le Québec il y a 13 ans.

Le médecin résident Mathieu Nadeau-Vallée publie aussi du contenu humoristique sur TikTok depuis quelques années. Quand la pandémie est arrivée au Québec, il est toutefois tombé sur des vidéos contenant de fausses informations au sujet de la COVID-19.

« Je me suis alors dit que j’allais faire une vidéo [pour rectifier les faits] and then the problem would be solved. But I put my finger in my eye and, a year later, I’m still here producing other videos, ”says the anesthesia resident who is followed by 83,000 people on TikTok and 28,000 on Twitter.

Over time, it has not lost its comedic tone. He employs humor because the longer his videos are watched on TikTok, the more the algorithm shares them with a wider audience, he says.

“For me, it’s important that people watch the videos until the end, but it’s difficult. Most people aren’t conspirators and they think they don’t need to watch my content. So I include humor, like that, they watch until the end and they find it funny, ”explains the one who attacks false information directly where it spreads.

Marie-Emmanuelle and Florence-Olivia Genesse took advantage of the pandemic and their confinement, together at the family home in Magog, to launch their The Sis account on TikTok. At the time, the social network was mainly used to broadcast choreographies. “We like to dance, but we wondered what added value we could bring. We have things to say, too,” says Marie-Emmanuelle, who has already danced semi-professionally, just like Florence-Olivia.

Both sisters studied feminist philosophy during their baccalaureate. Marie-Emmanuelle is currently a doctoral candidate in law and legal studies at Concordia University. She looks at domestic violence. Florence-Olivia is a doctoral candidate in law at the University of Durham, England, specializing in gender equality issues.

Today, The Sis account is followed by nearly 346,000 Internet users on TikTok and 44,000 on Instagram.

Marie-Emmanuelle and Florence-Olivia broadcast capsules on misogyny, abortion, the wage gap between the two sexes… In October 2020, they shared the sign of distress (folding the fingers over the thumb in the palm of the main) launched by the Canadian Women’s Foundation. The video went viral and has been viewed tens of millions of times. Two Americans who had been abducted were also rescued thanks to this wave of the hand.

The sisters receive dozens of messages every day, some of which are painful to read. “It’s difficult, but it’s also what pushes us to continue because we see that there are still inequalities. The day we stop, it will be the day when there will be no more, ”says Florence-Olivia.

Viviane Lalande affirms for her part that she has been spared, to this day, by the comments of Internet users who dispute science. Mathieu Nadeau-Vallée is often the target of conspirators. At first, the death threats, the waves of hatred and the doxing (dissemination of his personal information) were difficult to collect. Today, he takes these messages less seriously, except for the threats, which he denounces to the police.

“And I can’t do anything for these people because my tool is science. »