French court jails participants in online 'mob'

A pedestrian walks past a French gendarme (L) standing guard as a security perimeter is established around France’s Conseil Constitutionnel (constitutional council) on the day of a ruling from France’s Constitutional Council on a contested pension reform pushed by the French government, in Paris on April 14, 2023. – France’s top constitutional court is to rule on April 14 on whether to approve the French President’s deeply unpopular pensions overhaul after months of protests. (Photo by Ian LANGSDON / AFP)

A Paris criminal court handed jail terms Tuesday to 28 people who joined an online harassment campaign launched by a rapper against France’s “queen of influencers”.

In the country’s largest-ever cyberbullying case, the defendants aged between 20 and 49 were given sentences of between four and 18 months, half of them suspended, for sending hateful or insulting messages to social media star Magali Berdah.

Each of them “knew about the cyberbullying suffered by the victim and made a conscious choice to join in with it,” the court found.

Their actions had “real consequences” on Berdah’s mental health, the judges added.

The plaintiff had told the court that she had come “within a whisker of throwing (herself) out the window.”

“Finally, I’ve been recognised as a victim,” she told reporters Tuesday.

“My life was destroyed for two years because of this,” she said. “It’s a beautiful victory.”

Berdah was targeted by rapper Booba, who in 2022 launched a campaign against “thieving influencers,” whom he accused of scamming ordinary internet users.

He has been charged with aggravated harassment, but was not among those sentenced Tuesday.

The court found that the defendants’ actions were a result of Booba’s posts, Berdah’s lawyers said in a statement.

In December, the rapper denied he had put himself at the head of an online “mob”.

Booba is also notorious for a 2018 brawl at a Paris airport with his former protege Kaaris, for which each received an 18-month suspended sentence.

Tuesday’s cyberbullying convictions, which include fines of up to 700 euros ($760), prove that “no-one is safe behind their keyboard,” Berdah’s lawyer, David-Olivier Kaminski, told reporters.

The perpetrators also have to jointly come up with 54,000 euros in compensation for the influencer.

Berdah herself faces trial in Nice in September for bankruptcy and money laundering

Her company, Shauna Events, is also being investigated for fraud.

“Nothing can justify cyberbullying, especially not the behaviour of the person targeted,” said Rachel-Flore Pardo, another of Berdah’s lawyers.