An 16-year-old gay French teenager went on-line with an anti-Islamic rant in which she said “I hate religion” and “The Quran is a religion of hatred.” She made other nasty comments about Islam and God.
In return she received more than 100,000 hateful messages, some of which threatened rape and murder.
On Wednesday 11 men and women from around France were charged with on-line harassment of the teenager; they were given suspended prison sentences of four to six months. They also had to pay fines and attorney fees. Meanwhile the teenager had to withdraw from school and now has police protection.
Some of the defendants said they didn’t think the teenager would read the messages, or they didn’t mean what they said. The judge said, “Social networks are the street. What you wouldn’t do in the street–don’t do it on social networks.”
President Macron said, “We have abandoned the basic rules of public order when it comes to the internet.”
See Aurelien Breeden, “French Court Convicts 11 in Harassment Of Teenager for Anti-Islam Rant in Video,” New York Times, (July 8, 2021), p. A8.
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