RADIO LONDON. Trends, estimates, or simple humorous traits? The hashtag #RadioLondres is making a comeback this Sunday, June 19 for the second round of the legislative elections. With always the same distrust on the suggested results…
Look for a legislative result near you
[Mis à jour le 19 juin 2022 à 17h35] In the age of the Internet, everyone with a computer or a mobile phone can consult and share estimates which sometimes boil down to simple strokes of humor in addition. And in the midst of this brouhaha, as grotesque as it may seem, foreign sites are free to put online estimates of results at the end of the afternoon. And even the intermediate elections pass there. This was the case for the last legislative elections as well. Some leaks have also appeared on social networks for the European elections. What will happen this Sunday and will you see the curious #RadioLondres appear on social networks?
The demand for estimates is strong on each national election day, and the legislative elections are no exception. On social networks, particularly Twitter where the hashtag #RadioLondres circulates, foreign media estimates flourish from midday amid many more or less humorous trends or to be taken with great caution. Many accounts publish indeed – taking the risk of being sanctioned by justice – coarsely coded messages, accompanied by the famous hashtag. “The rose loses petals, I repeat the rose loses petals”, wrote for example a twitto during the last legislative to refer to the rout of the PS. If reliable media have serious information which they cannot account for, these tendencies published by everyone are thus in abundance. But between real estimates and intox, they make it difficult for the reader to share things. It is not uncommon for activists who want to react on Twitter to actually hide behind these accounts.
82 years after General de Gaulle’s famous June 18 appeal from London on the BBC antennas to mobilize the French against Nazi Germany and refuse the defeat of 1940, this term from Radio London will undoubtedly resurface this Sunday. The day after the celebrations of this historic speech, a wink of a completely different order should be made this Sunday to this founding act, on social networks this time, on the occasion of the legislative elections 2022. Under the hashtag #RadioLondres, a “hashtag” which would undoubtedly have left the General dubious, many messages will be exchanged throughout the day, sometimes for a touch of humor, sometimes for a militant message, and sometimes – rarely – to deliver an estimate or a trend on the results of these legislative elections before the legal time of 8 p.m. All against a backdrop of coded messages, most of which will be particularly easy to decipher.
RadioLondres, the code name of RTBF and others
Since 2012, the hashtag #RadioLondres, a nod to the coded messages of the resistance, broadcast from London during the occupation, has returned at regular intervals over the course of the elections, mainly those relating to a national issue. It is fed by Twittos often looking for a good word, but sometimes also in possession of credible figures. The Belgian and Swiss media, like the RTBF, also use this code name in addition to broadcasting trends on the elections before 8 p.m., do not fail to share these results on social networks.
Thus, on Twitter, a good number of messages flourish with each election under the hashtag #RadioLondres claiming to give an indication of the results. The second round of legislative elections should not escape the rule. On Twitter, numerous publications stamped #RadioLondres have already come from equally bloated accounts, serious or not, since the official campaign closed on Friday at midnight.
To read Radio London, you have to know how to decipher the coded messages. The inventiveness of Internet users does not seem to have any limit to disseminate messages to give the results as a pretext. The sibylline messages of Radio London are written through metaphors making it possible to identify, despite everything, the candidates, without too much difficulty. Puns related to the family name (Zemmour associated with the olive tree, “Zemmour” being the name of the tree in Berber; Netherlands for Holland in 2012), characteristics (in 2017, Macron was nicknamed “the kid”, then “Jupiter” in 2022; “talonnettes” was used for Sarkozy). Given the diversity of legislative candidates, many similar metaphors should be used.
But beware, Radio London was diverted from its original function when it appeared on social networks. If, initially, the messages published were intended to highlight the polls or to announce true-false results in a humorous way, the messages have recently taken a completely different turn. Indeed, activists from various political camps do not hesitate to multiply posts favorable to their colt in an attempt to influence the vote of voters who have not decided or who have not yet gone to the polls. And this, while the scope is still limited, Twitter being absolutely not representative of French opinion. During the 1st round of the 2022 presidential election, supporters of Eric Zemmour, followers of viral campaigns on the networks, did not hesitate to publish tweets praising the qualification of their champion in the 2nd round. , he who claimed it the previous days. Result of the races: he finished 4th by less than 10%… Enough to keep a cool head for the following polls, in particular that of this Sunday.