{"id":7561,"date":"2019-02-15T05:44:11","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T05:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/ligue-du-lol-secret-group-of-french-journalists-targeted-women\/"},"modified":"2019-02-15T05:44:11","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T05:44:11","slug":"ligue-du-lol-secret-group-of-french-journalists-targeted-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/ligue-du-lol-secret-group-of-french-journalists-targeted-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Ligue du LOL: Secret group of French journalists targeted women"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n The group targeted people with rape jokes and photoshopped pornography.
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Several senior French journalists have been suspended or fired for allegedly co-ordinating online harassment through a private Facebook group.<\/p>\n

The largely-male Ligue du LOL (League of LOL) mocked women, including other journalists, with rape jokes and photoshopped pornographic images.<\/p>\n

Dozens of women have spoken out since the group was uncovered by the major French daily Lib\u00e9ration.<\/p>\n

Lib\u00e9ration’s online editor Alexandre Hervaud is among those suspended.<\/p>\n

People in the League of LOL set up anonymous Twitter accounts in order to harass prominent journalists, writers and activists – predominantly targeting women.<\/p>\n

Vincent Glad, a well-known freelancer who also worked for Lib\u00e9ration, admitted founding the group in 2009. He has also been suspended from the paper.<\/p>\n

He apologised on Twitter (in French), saying that he now realised that “such practices were unacceptable and ‘LOL’ was not funny at all when it is done in a pack”.<\/p>\n

Mr Hervaud also tweeted out an apology for his involvement, but in a later post went on to attack “those who jump with joy” at his suspension.<\/p>\n

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\n Skip Twitter post by @AlexHervaud<\/a><\/p>\n
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Aux personnes qui se sont senties vis\u00e9es ici ou ailleurs depuis 11 ans par une ou plusieurs de mes saillies ricaneuses, je peux difficilement dire autre chose qu’un sinc\u00e8re “je m’excuse, c’\u00e9tait vraiment pas malin, et \u00e7a ne se reproduira plus”.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Alexandre Hervaud (@AlexHervaud) February 8, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n

End of Twitter post by @AlexHervaud<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Lib\u00e9ration is now carrying out an internal investigation into both Mr Hervaud and Mr Glad.<\/p>\n

Journalist Nora Bouazzouni, Slate France reporter Lucile Bellan, and podcaster M\u00e9lanie Wanga have all described being targeted by the group.<\/p>\n

In a tweet, science presenter Florence Porcel said that a man had called her phone, posing as an editor of a “prominent” news programme<\/a>. He interviewed her for a non-existent job and publicly posted the audio of their conversation online.<\/p>\n

“When the recording was made public, I cried of shame for three days,” Ms Porcel said.<\/p>\n