three questions about the “Pessi”, these trolls who appeared on Twitter and are now attacking LinkedIn

A Renaissance MP announced on Tuesday that she was the victim of a “wave of harassment” initiated by this community accustomed to virtual attacks under the guise of schoolboy humor.

And here are the “Pessi” again. This community of Internet users, sometimes jokers, vigilantes or cyberstalkers, forced MP Sandrine Le Feur (Renaissance) to deactivate comments on her LinkedIn account on Tuesday January 30. “For two days, I have been the subject of attacks from fake accounts named Pessi”deplores the elected official from Finistère, who denounces a “wave of harassment” and calls the platform to “regulate this proliferation as quickly as possible”. Franceinfo helps you understand who these Internet users are who have decided to make LinkedIn their new playground.

1 How were the “Pessi” born?

It all started in 2020, when a community of French Internet users formed on Twitter around a photomontage showing Argentine footballer Lionel Messi bald. The Barcelona player is then the subject of mockery for his propensity to miss the penalties he takes, hence the name of this new group of “trolls”: “Pessi, it’s Messi with a P to remember all the penalties he missed”says a member of this informal group Parisianin 2021. The early “Pessi” present themselves as adolescents or young adults, very often male, who simply have fun diverting images to make their bald Messi appear in improbable situations.

Over the months, from missed penalty to missed penalty, the community grew and organized itself around teams, called “FC” (for “football club”). To gain visibility, the “Pessi” became more offensive and launched into coordinated “raids” online. They target the Twitter account of personalities and flood it with messages. The exercise is intended to be structured and respectful, as evidenced by an online charteraccording to which “a Pessi who threatens or insults a person is a pessi finito” And “the Pessi must respect French law”. The “Pessi” even make it their mission to “fight discrimination and injustice in this world”.

2 How did the “raids” get worse?

After initial actions that went relatively unnoticed, the “Pessi” found themselves at the heart of a first controversy in March 2021. One Sunday, a torrent of comments, often absurd, poured out under a publication from Mila, a teenager already the victim of cyberharassment for having made Islamophobic remarks in 2020. Some “Pessi” respect their charter, but others free themselves from it. “I then see messages by the hundreds, riddled with insults”testifies the young girl to the Point. She responded to certain attackers and paradoxically saw her account suspended for “harassment”, which even caused the French government to react and forced Twitter to recognize “a mistake”.

From then on, the “raids” multiplied, sometimes with objectives of thousands of comments to reach. Identified between team leaders, “the targets are people causing controversy”explains a “Pessi” to Parisian. “The goal is to use humor to discredit them.” The Chinese embassy in France, the sports journalist Pierre Ménès, the far-right polemicist Jean Messiha and several members of the government are in turn targeted: Jean Castex, Marlène Schiappa, Gérald Darmanin… Victims must restrict the access to their account. Complaints for harassment and death threats were filed. Participating in a “raid” exposes Internet users to two years in prison.

The image of the “Pessi” is quickly tarnishing. “Our goal is not to harm anyone, but to ‘reason’ people in their comments through humor” and of “raise awareness on certain subjects”defends one of them, a 15-year-old high school student, to Releasein 2021. Another high school student, aged 18, says he promotes “benevolent raids” to massively support depressed Internet users. But “Pessi” are starting to distance themselves, denouncing attacks against “innocent people” targeted “without any reason”. One of them sums it up like this: “I could compare this situation to the ‘yellow vests’, which had, ultimately, a noble cause, but, little by little, ill-intentioned people have discredited [le mouvement].”

3 Why are the “Pessi” people talking about them again?

Quickly disappearing from the media radars, but still alive, the “Pessi” have re-emerged on the front of the stage in recent days, investing in the LinkedIn platform. On January 25, on this network of professional relations, one of them created an account in the name of “Pessi Dérurgiste”. Dozens of registrants like “Pessi Misste”, “Pessi Llustrateur” or even “Lionel Pessi” follow, who have fun hijacking the codes of LinkedIn, with false recruitment announcements or fanciful surveys.

On this network accustomed to the first degree, the “Pessi” quickly numbered more than 2,000 to compete on the second level, according to 20 minutes. “LinkedIn is a new field of expression for us”, jubilate one of them with everyday life. “That change from Twitter where we lost our freshness a little”he admits, ensuring that they “won’t do[t] No problem”.

Promise kept? Not to the taste of MP Sandrine Le Feur. “I’m unlucky enough to have the word ‘Feur’ in my name, which apparently happens to be their rallying comment.”, she writes on her LinkedIn account. One of the recurring jokes of the “Pessi”, these bald Messis, is in fact to answer “feur” to each question “What?”. When one of them discovered the existence of the chosen one, he called on his counterparts to flood her with “fire” and to “dedicate a sort of admiration to him”, “hoping she doesn’t take it badly”. Seeing this as an obstacle to dialogue with her subscribers, the elected official deactivated the comments under her publications. “It is urgent to act in the face of this wave of harassment”she says, calling on LinkedIn to defend the “freedom of expression on this network” And “the benevolence of exchanges”.