Elyze, the phenomenon application downloaded hundreds of thousands of times before the presidential campaign, had been the subject of several controversies.
” Mr. Grégoire CAZCARRA has been appointed adviser in charge of digital communication and foresight, in the office of the Secretary of State to the Prime Minister, spokesperson for the Government, as of June 9, 2022 “. The information, brief, was made public in the official journal of June 14, 2022.
Elyze, the app dubbed the ” Politics Tinder », is once again talking about her. But this time, it’s not because she is accused of favoring one candidate more than another, or because she was removed from the Android Play Store: one of her co-founder, Grégoire Cazcarra, has been appointed to the office of government spokesperson, Olivia Grégoire.
A very political position
This is a very important position: Olivia Grégoire is ” responsible for reporting on the work of the Council of Ministers and, more generally, for carrying out an information mission on the activities of the Government. It is informed, for the exercise of its powers, of the various actions carried out by the members of the Government. “, notes the official journal. She will therefore, through her position, be in regular contact with the press, but also all the other members of the government – through her, Grégoire Cazcarra will also be.
” As spokesperson, I will be able to continue my commitment […] in favor of a renewed democratic dialogue between the government and the citizens, in particular the youngest “, explains Grégoire Cazcarra, joined by Numerama. He assumes to us that there will be no link between Elyze and her new job. ” I stepped back from this project and more broadly from all my associative responsibilities before I took office to devote myself fully to it.. »
Elyze, a success marred by controversy
Grégoire Cazcarra was still a student until then. According to his LinkedIn page, he is doing a master’s degree at ESCP, a business school, after studying at Sciences Po and ENS. His mission to the spokesperson will not be the first time he has worked for the executive: still according to LinkedIn, he previously did an internship in the office of Geneviève Darrieussecq, who was Minister Delegate in charge of memory and veterans in the previous term.
However, it was through Elyze, the application he co-founded with François Mari, another student, that he became known. The app, launched at the start of 2022, a few months before the presidential election, quickly met with success and for a time rose to number 1 in downloads on the Play Store.
The app had a simple operation: all you had to do was swipe on the candidates’ proposals, to find out which one the user felt closest to in terms of ideas. But Elyze has also drawn the wrath of several observers: some have noticed that when there was a tie between the candidates, it was Emmanuel Macron who was put forward. Developer Mathis Hammel also noticed several security issuesand the CNIL had even intervened to say that it was going to look closely at the use of the data collected.
Following the controversies, the founders had indicated that they had changed the provisions of the application for candidates who arrived tied, and had deleted all the data collected by the app. However, Mathis Hammel had pointed out the shortcomings of the app, found that the bug had not been corrected “ for a few weeks “.