The commission has opened an investigation and could condemn Eric Zemmour for this canvassing carried out according to the religion of the recipients.
Many citizens were surprised to receive a message from Eric Zemmour on their cell phones just hours before the end of the campaign for the first round of the presidential election.
A dubious canvassing that alerts the CNIL
The far-right candidate’s teams more specifically targeted individuals of the Jewish faith. In the message, a link referred to a text by Eric Zemmour denouncing ” the explosion “anti-Semitic acts in connection with” the spread of Islam in France, the polemicist’s obsession.
This canvassing based on religion is, however, an illegal practice. In its defence, the staff of the candidate Reconquête explained that it had never set up a database of Jewish people and said that it had relied on the services of a data broker, a personal data broker, to collect a list people with an interest in the subject of anti-Semitism. These data would have been drawn from blogs, news sites or newsletters “.
Eric Zemmour’s teams also claim that the data broker has received the explicit consent of these different people so that their data is shared for political purposes.
Eric Zemmour is used to flirting with the yellow line to relaunch his campaign
Obviously, many of the people contacted were not informed and expressed their disagreement by reporting these practices to the CNIL, which announced today that it had opened an investigation on this subject.
The constitution of a list of individuals according to their religious denomination and its use are strictly prohibited by French law. Éric Zemmour thus risks a fine of 20 million euros, as well as five years in prison if the authority succeeds in proving the establishment of a file by his Reconquest party. The sole use of such a database could also be sanctioned.
This new case joins a long list of questionable practices on the part of the teams of the far-right polemicist. In December 2021, the video announcing his candidacy was full of images and excerpts for which his teams had not paid the rights to use. Éric Zemmour was sentenced for “ copyright infringement to pay €70,000 to the plaintiffs. He appealed this decision.
Éric Zemmour also sent on Telegram the results of a poll placing him in the lead in the first round of the presidential election. This survey, conducted via the Qotmii application, was based on media buzz and ” does not constitute statistical surveys by questioning a sample according to the National Commission for the Control of the Electoral Campaign for the Presidential Election and the Polling Commission. At the same time, the institutions asked the media not to relay these results, which do not correspond to any methodology.
As a reminder, Éric Zemmour finished in fourth position in the first round with 7.07% of the votes cast.
Source : BFM TV
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