“Youtube has a responsibility for visibility and toxicity” by Rémy Daillet, figure of conspiracy indicted since October 22 for “terrorist criminal association” and remanded in custody, according to Tristan Mendès-France, lecturer at Paris-Diderot University, specialist in digital cultures and collaborator of the Observatory of conspiracy.
Rémy Daillet, also prosecuted in the case of the kidnapping of little Mia, is suspected of having wanted to organize, from Malaysia, a coup d’etat to seize the Elysee Palace. A secret project, called “Operation Azur”, that Rémy Daillet had outlined on Youtube, explains Tristan Mendès-France. The main lines of this project were revealed by Le Parisien and confirmed to franceinfo on Thursday, October 28, from a source close to the file. Among the members of this operation, anti-vaccines, neo-Nazi militants, survivalist conspiracies, and yellow vests, who also wanted to attack vaccination centers, 5G antennas and a Masonic lodge.
franceinfo: Did the existence of such an operation, so organized, surprise you?
Tristan Mendès-France: Not too much, because he has, since October 17, 2020 on Youtube, explained quite clearly the program he had, of overthrowing the Republic, with his coup. He has multiplied the interventions online, the live ones. He made many of them, in which he explained, in detail, how he planned to organize his movement. He made no secret of having soldiers ready to participate. He was pretty sure his plan would work, and he made it pretty clear online.
There are very different profiles in this operation. What brings them together? What attracts them to Rémy Daillet’s speeches?
Basically a feeling of mistrust and frustration, of ideological mistrust of the government. There are profiles linked to the radical far right. Frustration probably fueled by the pandemic, and which has contributed to this dropout of part of the population. This frustration resulted in an online search by these people for figures, perhaps saviors. And that’s a bit like that Rémy Daillet introduced himself.
Rémy Daillet’s lawyer defends his client on the following line: “If there was a plan for a violent coup, he was foreign to it. He advocated a peaceful overthrow.” Is that what comes up in his speeches?
Not quite. He clearly had an extremely aggressive, radical speech. He denounced masonry. Rémy Daillet made references to the American insurrectional movement QAnon, whose mechanics he admired. He clearly had the seeds of violent action within him. Publicly, he tried to display himself with a more or less clean face. But behind, on “live”, he pushed his flock to organize themselves in cells.
Social networks help these profiles, allow this movement to flourish?
If you remove social media, you don’t have the Daillet phenomenon. Everything was done online. First, there was this viralization on Youtube, which has a responsibility in its visibility and its toxicity. And then there are more confidential platforms, like Telegram, which allow them to coordinate in small groups, and to radicalize together. Online activism, keyboard can translate into reality. We must not neglect the fact that to broadcast very widely, as Rémy Daillet was able to do on Youtube, worrying, even toxic calls, can convince even a few individuals on the fringe. It only takes a few, with fragile profiles, to switch to very disturbing acts.