The personal data policeman has delivered his judgment. Eric Zemmour’s digital electoral tactics during the 2022 presidential election were indeed illegal.
New setback for Reconquête!, the party which was supposed to bring Eric Zemmour to the presidency in 2022. A deliberation of the CNIL ruled that the political movement had illegally collected the personal information of Internet users in order to advertise for the candidate of ‘SO. Through a galaxy ofof websites administered by the association», the movement had attempted to build a dematerialized militant base, without the agreement of those primarily concerned, as revealed by the newspaper Le Monde.
A reprehensible lack of information
The idea was simple. By setting up dozens of websites surfing on anxiety-provoking news, Reconquest! encouraged Internet users to sign up for petitions to receive information on various topics. As Le Monde reveals, one of these sites offered, for example, to join a complaint targeting a comedian who had made a schoolboy political joke. Via these seemingly independent sites, Eric Zemmour’s movement collected email addresses to flood them with political propaganda in favor of the far-right candidate.
More precisely, it is not the sending of the email itself which was sanctioned by the CNIL, but rather “an absence of information relating to data protection and an absence of reference to a confidentiality policy» on the said sites, indicates the note that Le Monde was able to consult. For this lack of communication, the candidate and his party will therefore have to pay a fine of 20,000 euros.
Not a first for Eric Zemmour
This is not the first time that Reconquest! has his shoulder straps lifted by the CNIL. A few days before the first round of the presidential election, many people had received voice messages or SMS messages from Eric Zemmour, detailing his program “for security, against immigration» even though they hadn’t asked anyone. Telephone canvassing does not respect the rules stating that “every citizen has […] the right to oppose political canvassing using automated calling machines, unconditionally», the CNIL had called the candidate to order.
Other candidates, like Valérie Pécresse or Emmanuel Macron in 2017, had also deployed massive telephone campaigns, but respecting the rules laid down by the CNIL since preceded by an alert message and followed by a number to contact for oppose any additional canvassing.
Source : The world
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