Conspiracy theories have long been confined to private discussions in small groups. But in recent years and in particular since the Covid crisis, they have experienced an ascent materialized by an ever greater porosity with “the real world”, through demonstrations, even violent actions.
A phenomenon illustrated by the recent smear campaign led by the youtubeur-speaker Idriss Aberkane and Xavier Azalbert, the director of the publication of the blog France Evening which has just lost its approval from the Joint Commission for Publications and Press Agencies (CPPAP) for “lack of general interest” and “attack on the protection of public health” and is therefore no longer considered a site of information online, as revealed by Mind Media November 30. If these two figures from the French-speaking conspiratorial spheres had already attacked the media and civil figures who denounce their methods and the false information they disseminate, their recent attacks targeting Antoine Daoust, the director of the publication of the fact-checking site Fact & Furious and Rudy Reichstadt, political scientist and director of Conspiracy Watcha site specializing in the observation of conspiracy, mark an unprecedented drift.
Instrumentalization of a conflictual divorce
The first act took shape on November 22, when Idriss Aberkane broadcast, on his channel Youtube, an interview with Malika Daoust, Antoine Daoust’s wife. The latter accuses her husband, who has just filed for divorce, of “battery and injury” and announces that she has filed a complaint against him. If the youtubeur pretends to be interested in this personal affair on which justice will look, it is mainly to forge links with the professional activities of Antoine Daoust. Idriss Aberkane suspects him of “collusion” with AFP Factual, the fact-checking section of Agence France Presse which would have covered these supposed violence, and more generally with a “network of fact-checkers” which would act in an organized manner on the orders of “sponsors” while practicing “omerta” on the accusations of domestic violence, thus making themselves guilty of “almost mafia” behavior.
The accusations and insinuations made by Idriss Aberkane during this interview, relayed a few hours later by Xavier Azalbert, were not supported by any evidence, when they were not simply lies, as the newspaper has already explained Release. But they generated a massive wave of harassment against Antoine Daoust, who received hundreds of messages of insults and threats on social networks. This manifest instrumentalization of a conflicted divorce in order to reveal a so-called conspiracy was subsequently relayed by South Radio and far-right radio Courtesy Radio, who invited Xavier Azalbert and Idriss Aberkane. Didier Raoult, the former director of the Marseille IHU, also shared Aberkane’s video on his Twitter account. “This has amplified the wave of harassment on Twitter”, notes Antoine Daoust, interviewed by L’Express.
During his interview on Radio Courtoisie, Xavier Azalbert claims to have recovered the family computer of Antoine and Malika Daoust, which had remained at the latter’s home. On Twitter, supporters of the conspiratorial blog explain siphoning “with France Evening“ hard drives using software to recover erased documents and information purporting to uncover a media “information laundering” conspiracy involving Agence France Presse, the Elysee Palace, French intelligence services, the Ministry of Culture, and more generally a large part of the press. Documents combining professional and personal life are then broadcast on social networks, some directly by Xavier Azalbert. If none allows to prove any conspiracy, they feed on the other hand a particularly violent company of denigration.
Among these documents, medical prescriptions from Antoine Daoust, an administrative letter stating his financial situation, as well as a photo that they present as his new companion (as well as his identity and the mention of his Twitter account), a document – since deleted – this time mentioning the home address of Malika Daoust, but also part of the history of telephone calls from the director of Fact and Furious, or even private conversations with his freelancers as well as their employment contracts. In one of these conversations, a person posting under a pseudonym indicated that he wanted to end the collaboration for fear of being harassed if he revealed his true identity. Contacted by L’Express, the latter confirms her great concern and claims to have filed a handrail, while deploring the inaction of the police and the justice system.
Antoine Daoust is visited at his home by a stranger
Unfortunately, this episode comes as no surprise, since France Evening has already hosted a call to behead scientists and doctors who criticize Professor Raoult. It nevertheless took a particularly worrying turn since the day after the publication of the video of Idriss Aberkane, Wednesday, November 23, Antoine Daoust received a visit to his home from a stranger. “This person introduced himself as Christophe Marchand, a marriage mediator, and I let him in,” explains the director of publication of Fact and Furious. The mysterious character admits a few minutes later not to be a marriage mediator, but a matchmaker sent by “people” offering to buy the Fact and Furious site in exchange for the cessation of legal proceedings.
The next day, Thursday, November 24, Antoine Daoust went to the gendarmerie of Grenade-sur-Garonne to file a handrail. He receives, at the same time, a call from the “matchmaker”. Put on loudspeaker, the conversation is listened to and recorded by the gendarmes. Christophe Marchand admits to being Gérard Camberlin, an active figure of conspiracy in France, and offers a new telephone interview. He calls back at 2:54 p.m. and indicates that he is “in the presence of Xavier Azalbert”. The eighteen-minute recorded conversation, which L’Express was able to listen to, is surreal. The person presenting himself as the director of the publication of France Evening says he does not want to interfere in his private life and condemns the threats he receives – even though part of it comes precisely from information disseminated by France Evening – and offers Antoine Daoust to “collaborate” with him and buy the company Fact & Furious, in exchange for which he promises to “stop all legal proceedings” against him. Antoine Daoust refuses the proposal. At L’Express, he confides that he has filed a complaint against his wife, Idriss Aberkane, Xavier Azalbert, and plans to sue Didier Raoult.
These facts prompted Antoine Daoust to close his Fact and Furious site, but also all his accounts on the social networks Facebook and Twitter in order to put an end to online harassment. Fearing for his safety, he also left his home and now sleeps in hotels and Airbnbs. The denounced practices of Xavier Azalbert and the sulphurous personalities who surround him have indeed cause for concern. Gérard Camberlin, boss of a PMU, was interned in a psychiatric hospital during the first confinement after threatening the state with violent action. He is also the administrator of “Table700”, a small Facebook group which claimed to have an intelligence which designated Richard Boutry – another figure of French conspiracy – as the chosen one who must save France from the health dictatorship. He is, again, a great supporter of the “people’s court” which will be responsible, once “the people” will be in power, to judge, even to execute all traitors.
“Their operation aims to waste time and it works”
If it is not possible to know if Xavier Azalbert really intended to buy Fact and Furious, his blog France Evening just lost its CPPAP approval… which Fact and Furious had before it closed. This approval allows in particular to benefit from certain tax reductions and exemptions, including a rebate on journalists’ social security contributions and professional expenses, a reduced VAT rate on sales of news content and exemption from business tax. The takeover of Fact and Furious would have allowed him to benefit from it. If he was unable to buy Antoine Daoust’s news site, Xavier Azalbert announced, two days before the announcement of the loss of his CPPAP approval, the creation of Fact and SERIOUSa new blog mimicking Fact and Furious while using the colors of France Evening. The “Whois” lookup service confirms that the domain name FactandSERIOUS.com was purchased by Xavier Azalbert.
The first “revelation” of this new site, teased on Twitter, aim this time Rudy Reichstadt. The process is similar to that used against Antoine Daoust, since, again, a lot of private information is revealed, in particular the identity of his spouse. “False information of a defamatory nature is held about him”, denounces Rudy Reichstadt. According to him, this series of tweets mixes exact information (such as his date of birth, his diploma from the IEP of Aix-en-Provence, the date of his PACS) with erroneous information and misleading or false allegations. The director of Conspiracy Watch explains, for example, never having bought an apartment in cash. “This is an allegation the purpose of which is to suggest that I obtained secret funding.” He also denies having been presented to the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron in 2019 “thanks to a ‘confessional network'”. “I met him for the first time within the framework of the Bronner commission, at the Elysée, at the end of September 2021. Given the context and the violent anti-Semitic attacks of which I am the target, this takes on a clearly anti-Semitic dimension”, he says. He rejects, again, the accusation of links with the MoDem which would have subsidized Conspiracy Watch to the tune of approximately 20,000 euros. “There was never any question of Conspiracy Watch being subsidized, directly or indirectly, by any political party, the MoDem or any other,” he adds. At L’Express, Rudy Reichstadt indicates that he has filed a complaint against Xavier Azalbert.
In the meantime, the boss of France Evening and Idriss Aberkane have announced their intention to continue their “investigations” against the “pharmacies” who have denounced their methods in order to “incriminate” them. “Their operation aims to smear, to waste time and energy and it works, believes Rudy Reichstadt. They follow the adage ‘Lie, slander, there will always be something left’. These smear campaigns, relayed by Sud Radio and Radio Courtoisie, and applauded by the media 442, close to Alain Soral, and Participatory Democracy, which is openly Nazi, will in my opinion intensify: we are witnessing an informational chaos, with completely asymmetrical methods… Until the day someone commits suicide, because that is the logic of these extremely violent operations.”