The State is back in the fight against sectarian aberrations. After several years of wanderings, and while the phenomenon is only growing, Secretary of State Sonia Backès presented this Friday a series of measures intended to strengthen the fight against sects and mental control. Awareness campaign, work with digital platforms and social networks, increased resources for Miviludes, new legal tools: these announcements came after the first National Conference devoted to this subject. “It is not a question of an outcome, but of the foundation of a new house, of an action plan that we are going to build”, indicated Sonia Backès. The work must indeed continue in the coming weeks, to lead to an interministerial roadmap by the summer, which should guide the action of the public authorities “for the next ten years”.
The increase in the Miviludes workforce was eagerly awaited by the field associations. “We are 12 today, and we should increase to 15 or 16 by the end of the year,” said Donatien Le Vaillant, the new head of the mission, who arrived at the end of January. Agents from the general directorate of the national police should notably join the ranks of this structure. “We were asked, but we could not stop at this answer alone, it would not have been up to what we expected”, underlined Sonia Backès, who wishes to develop both prevention, assistance to victims, and repression against perpetrators.
“Prevention is essential, because it is easier to prevent someone from falling under the influence than to get them out of it,” explains the Secretary of State. She knows it only too well, herself having escaped at the age of 13 from the clutches of Scientology, where her own mother had dragged her. A major campaign to raise awareness of sectarian risks should therefore be launched “in the coming months”.
Partnership with digital platforms
Key players in the rise of conspiracy theories and unparalleled vectors of communication for 2.0 gurus, the internet giants have also been put to work. Sign of the sensitivity of the subject, they are the only ones to have refused that the press follow their discussions within the framework of the working groups organized during the Assizes. The possibility of partnerships between Twitter, Meta, Google or TikTok on the one hand and Miviludes on the other is nevertheless emerging. They should be formalized by the summer.
“This will involve training moderators, making Miviludes a trusted third party to point out dangerous content, and stop promoting dangerous content. And conversely, platforms will also be able to report problematic content to authorities”, continued Sonia Backès. Net players should also rework their algorithms so as to highlight “positive, verified and scientific information”. “They are open to discussion. Now, let’s see how this will translate into reality”, nuance Pierre Bremond d’Ars, president of the No Fake Med collective, which participated in this work.
Finally, at the local level, “sectarian excesses” referents will return to the prefectures. Meetings should also bring together regularly around the prefects all the actors in the fight against cults. This is not a novelty, but the reactivation of a device that had proven itself during the first fifteen years of existence of the Miviludes.
Compensation for victims
Unconventional care practices were discussed a lot during these two days. Naturopathy, reiki, yoga and other energy medicines represent a growing share of referrals to Miviludes. In an attempt to put a stop to charlatans, the Minister Delegate Agnès Firmin Le Bodo already announced yesterday the creation of a committee intended to map and supervise these practices. Other avenues were mentioned today: giving the possibility to the directors of regional health agencies to prohibit certain unregulated practitioners from practicing, prohibiting advertising praising the merits of these practices against serious illnesses or even creating a offense of incitement to stop treatment. So many measures which will however still have to be discussed with the Ministries of Health and Justice. Also in discussion with Justice, the possibility for victims to access the guarantee fund for crime victims.
Above all, the Secretary of State announced her intention to strengthen partnerships with associations fighting against sectarian aberrations: contracting over three years, better circulation of information between the different structures and with Miviludes… “We were expecting all this for a long time, rejoices Pascale Duval, spokesperson for Unadfi, the national union of associations helping families and individuals who are victims of sects. We will now see how this will translate in practice”. At this stage, no budgetary element or calendar has indeed been announced. “With such public declarations, it will not be able to give birth to a mouse”, hopes Didier Pachoud, president of Gemppi (group of study of the movements of thought for the protection of the individual). The answer should arrive by the summer.