In Eric Zemmour’s digital panoply, a dozen of his activists try to relay his positions on Wikipedia pages, including one of the biggest French contributors to this online encyclopedia, according to a book published Thursday and as seen the AFP.
“wikipedia”
In “At the heart of Z” (Goutte d’Or editions), journalist Vincent Bresson recounts his infiltration among the supporters of the far-right presidential candidate, in particular in an online “cell” called “wikizedia” which tries to weigh on the content of Wikipedia pages devoted to Eric Zemmour, his party, his supporters… This temptation is common among political activists of all stripes and the modifications, if they are tendentious, are generally immediately corrected by the Wikipedia community. But the particularity of this team is to count in its ranks Gabriel alias “Cheep”, 64th largest contributor to Wikipedia in French, registered for more than 15 years, with more than 150,000 contributions to the counter.
Thursday morning, this information sparked a series of indignant reactions among contributing administrators of Wikipedia, who are calling for the “banning” of “Cheep” and six other accounts. According to an internal source, the sanction could be pronounced in the hours or in the days to come. In a screenshot sent to AFP, “Cheep” is said to be in “the Z team, in charge of its Wikipedia page”. Contacted, he did not respond immediately.
Changes to the candidate page
Among his attempts at modifications, he tried in October 2021 to lower the expression “classified on the far right” on Eric Zemmour’s page and to qualify it as follows: “Classified on the far right in France by the most of the French media or within the ‘right outside the walls’ by historians and political scientists”. In December 2021, he also tried to remove from the page the controversy over the use of unauthorized images from films or television channels in the candidate’s campaign entry clip. “Cheep” also captioned a photo of Pétain and Laval saying that their “responsibility in the Holocaust in France is subject to debate”. Since removed, these changes have earned it a series of criticisms, with one contributor calling for it to be blocked for a week.
A LeFrançais2022 account was also identified as a member of Eric Zemmour’s campaign and blocked by the administrators. Eric Zemmour’s digital manager, Samuel Lafont, does not confirm the presence of “Cheep” but mentions several “loops” dedicated to Wikipedia in order to “improve Eric Zemmour’s page which was very oriented against him with changes of pages held by the left. It’s the game of Wikipedia, it’s a participative encyclopedia. It’s normal that everyone brings their stone to the building”, he believes.
According to the president of the Wikimedia France association, Capucine-Marin Dubroca-Voisin, “it is common for contributors to try to modify pages for political purposes”, but the fact that “Cheep” is mentioned could “have the effect of a bomb within the community, because it is a reference account, very old with significant activity”.