We explain what “La Ligue du LOL” is, this group of journalists accused of cyberbullying

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They don’t make anyone laugh anymore. They were all influential on social networks and some would have taken advantage of this notoriety to harass women. Checknews, the fact-checking project of Release, published an article on Friday, February 8, on “La Ligue du LOL”, a group of journalists accused of having mocked and insulted many people on social networks between the end of the 2000s and the beginning of the 2010s. This article was written after several women said on social networks that they had been victims of “raids” by these journalists on Twitter. Many other people have since testified.

What is this “LOL League”?

The “LOL League” is the name of a private Facebook group, created by journalist Vincent Glad – who writes in particular for Release – in the late 2000s, the newspaper explains. It brought together around thirty people, mainly men, journalists, bloggers, or from the world of advertising or communication. All were at the time identified as “influencers” on Twitter – “big boys”, valued today Vincent Glad – at a time when the social network did not have the popularity it now knows.

“At the beginning of the 2010s, I was invited to a private group, as there were many at the time, in which a lot of tweeters held a veritable observatory of funny Twitter stuff”says on his Facebook page Henry Michel, one of its members. According to the podcaster, who has also answered questions from Releasethe members of “La Ligue du LOL” were doing “Mostly jokes, which we couldn’t make in public. It was brilliant, it was stupid, there was this observatory side of Twitter characters, we exchanged links, photos, we made fun of people.”

Why did this story come up?

The world evokes an evasive first tweet from Thomas Messias, journalist at Slate. Tuesday, without specifically mentioning “La Ligue du LOL”, he evokes the case of a “model journalist who sets an example after having had fun in packs of feminist stalkers”. In response, AH, journalist at Releasesees in this message the illustration of “the paradoxical bitterness of certain zealous militants: they want to change society, but cannot digest that a particular person can really change”.

In the process, Iris KV, a journalist specializing in the follow-up of television series, replies to AH: “Change is good. Apologizing to the people you harassed would be better.” She then turns to “all the members of ‘La Ligue du LOL’ at the time, who went after feminists, neuroatypicals, etc.” “You may have forgotten, but the people you hurt have a better memory”she wrote.

What are its members accused of?

Several women then – like Iris KV – testified on social networks, claiming to have been harassed by members of this Facebook group. Many other messages follow, such as that of author Daria Marx, an activist against grossophobia. “For several years on Twitter, me and other feminist girlfriends, we were the target of these little Parisian guys who were making fun of us, continues Daria Marx with Release. I was fat, so I had no right to speak.”

One day, one of the members of this league took a porn picture of a fat, blonde chick who might vaguely look like me and started twirling the picture on Twitter saying he found my sex tape.

Daria Marx

to “Liberation”

Many women describe the same methods of cyberstalking. “They were absolutely infamous on Twitter, says Nora Bouazzouni, former journalist for franceinfo.fr, who still collaborates occasionally on the site. It was relentless, I also got harassed, with insults, photomontages, animated gifs with porn stuff with my head on it, anonymous insult emails”, she confides in Release.

After the article was published, other women testified on Twitter. “‘The LOL League’ spotted me and began its undermining work little by little: photo montages, videos aimed at making fun of me (…), recurring criticism of my appearance…says the journalist Capucine Piot. All this on a regular, free basis, and dragging a whole bunch of twittos in their unhealthy and devastating wake. According to his testimony, the facts went beyond the scope of harassment on the internet.

Mélanie Wanga, co-founder of the podcast Le Tchip on Arte radio, criticizes certain members of the “LOL League” for having attacked, in addition to feminists, “LGBTQ people” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) and “racialized”.

In a long article published on Medium, Benjamin LeReilly specifically addresses the issue of “homophobia” and claims to have been, “for several years”, “harassed by ‘La Ligue du LOL'”. Among the various episodes listed, he says in particular that a photomontage of him performing fellatio was “sent en masse to minors, up to 12-14 years old”. In return, he received notifications from them, “shocked at being exposed to pornography and telling me to go die (to be polite)”.

What do the defendants answer?

Many members of this group remained silent after the publication of the article by Release. The journalist from Release AH is one of the first to respond publicly. “My bullshit, I take it. Those of others, no thank you”, he explained, before finally apologizing on Twitter. In a new message posted on Sundayhe evokes the “horrors” published by him, but distances himself from the “serious facts mentioned by some” (identity theft, hoaxes, threats…) and deplores “the actions of certain (…) more borderline members” of the group.

Other members subsequently posted similar messages. Henry Michel, on Facebook, asked “forgiveness to all those that I could hurt directly or indirectly by having contributed to the culture of this group”. But according to him, within “La Ligue du LOL”, “ithere was everything” : “people incapable of being anti-feminists”, “assholes”, “funny people and people who weren’t funny or who were trying to be”.

Podcaster Sylvain Paley said to have “discovered abominable things” of which he had “no idea” and evokes the presence of “toxic limbs” within the group. Olivier Tesquetjournalist at Teleramaclaims not to have “never harassed anyone” and describes himself as a “passive witness” of these actions, at a time when “the clash was the regime in force for online exchanges”. “It was fashionable on Twitter to make black humor, has explained Guilhem Malissen podcaster. I loved stand-up and frustrated not to practice it, I killed my desire for jokes on the networks. Without realizing that what I was writing could be sexist, grossophobic, homophobic and constitute harassment.”

DD, current web editor of Inrocksadmitted having “carried out two prank calls”one of which targeted the youtuber Florence Porcel. “I measure today the disgust of these acts”he wrote, while denying having ever “made of photomontages” Where “practised raids”.

As for the creator of “La Ligue du LOL”, Vincent Glad, he for his part denied having been at the origin of these acts of harassment, or even having been aware of them. “We were influential, and it’s true that if we criticized someone, it could take on a lot of importance, he says. There is some truth in that, some people who may have felt legitimately harassed. But there is also a big part of fantasy.

We have been somewhat blamed for all the misfortunes of the Internet. (…) At the time, I took full the mouth of it too. We thought it was a big game. It was a big playground, a big sandbox. It was trolling, we thought it was cool. Today, that would be considered harassment.

Vincent Glad

at Liberation

The creator of “The League of LOL” apologized Sunday in a long message posted on Twitter.

What are they risking?

“Being harassed in 2012 or 2018 is the SAME”retorted journalist Nadia Daam on Twitter. Legally, moral harassment is defined in article 222-33-2-2 of the Penal Code. This text provides that online harassment is punishable by two years’ imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 euros, a penalty increased to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros if the victim is a minor or vulnerable, or if the facts have caused total incapacity for work of more than eight days.

However, the facts alleged against members of “La Ligue du LOL”, most of them committed before 2013, are time-barred since the time limit for cyberbullying is currently six years. Questioned on this point, the Secretary of State Marlène Schiappa indicated on Twitter that she intended to raise the subject with her counterpart of Justice, Nicole Belloubet, on a possible extension of this deadline.

If justice cannot intervene, the case has however had direct professional consequences for several of the people implicated. The direction of Release laid off A. H. and Vincent Glad. The latter also saw his collaboration with Brain Magazine suspended. Christophe Carron, editor-in-chief of Slate, after having in turn apologized on Twitter, has been excluded from the treatment of this subject by the editorial staff of the site. The podcast studio Nouvelles Ecoutes has on its side terminated to his collaboration with Guilhem Malissen.


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