PSG would have responsible, between 2018 and 2020, a communications agency to create false Twitter accounts to carry out hostile campaigns against targets from the Parisian club, reveals “Mediapart” Wednesday.
Le Monde
Paris Saint-Germain would have charged, between 2018 and 2020, a communications agency to create a “army” of false Twitter accounts to carry out digital raids against many targets hostile to the club, according to Revelations of Mediapart published Wednesday October 12. According to the information site, which had access to a report by the company Digital Big Brother (DBB), controlled by the Franco-Tunisian businessman Lotfi Bel Hadj, these “trolls” were responsible for discrediting personalities , journalists and even team players.
Among the targets favored by these false accounts were, according to the report, “media deemed hostile to PSG as Mediapart and the team, the supporter slapped by Neymar [after the defeat of PSG in the final of the French Cup 2019], the girl who accused the Brazilian rape star, but also club personalities like the player Adrien Rabiot and the former sports director Antero Henrique “. Mediapart adds that “even the Kylian Mbappé icon was scratched when he hinted that he could leave the club in 2019”.
According to this DBB report, which takes stock of its activity on behalf of PSG for the 2018/2019 season, this digital army “was supervised by the PSG communication department, led at the time by Jean-Martial Ribes “. The latter left the club in May for the communication service of a subsidiary of the luxury giant LVMH.
Protect the reputation of Neymar
Contacted by Mediapart, PSG claims to have “never contracted with an agency in order to harm individuals and institutions”. However, according to information from the site, “if there was indeed no contract with the club, it is PSG which paid the digital influence services performed by Digital Big Brother”.
DBB’s strategy revolved around a “reference” account, “Paname Squad”, which presents itself on Twitter as a “collective of Paris Saint-Germain” collective, and around which accounts “accounts” partners “, responsible for amplifying these posts.
Mediapart explains that “Paname Squad” “lobby on strategic subjects, in particular by fighting against financial fair play (FPF), this rule of budgetary discipline decreed by the European Foot Federation, that PSG a Massively raped “. You have to “blow up the FPF”, writes in particular “Paname Squad”.
Another example: the club “digital army” has worked several times to protect the reputation of the Brazilian striker Neymar. “After the superstar slapped a supporter of the Stade Rennais, the Paname Squad account published the complete identity of the victim and tried to pass it for a offender,” explains Mediapart. In addition, when an ex-girlfriend of the player accused him of rape (the investigation was finally classified without follow-up), the trolls undertook to dirty the reputation of the complainant.
The information site adds that the most frequent attacks on these accounts are carried out against the media, with two priority targets, Mediapart and the team: “end 2018,” the digital army “launched a special operation Against Mediapart, renamed “Mediapartouze”, to counter the revelations of second season football leaks “.