"Want to have fun? Give us some targets. If they deserve it, we'll troll them." Little emojis of a winking eye and a phone, the administrators of the Telegram group "Jewish Brigade," recently renamed "Celestial Dragons" – a reference to a caste that rules the world in the manga One Piece, sometimes deemed anti-Semitic – are on the hunt for new prey "to troll" at the start of 2024. The exact term would be "to dox," the expression for publishing someone's personal details (address, phone number) without their consent, with the aim of inciting harassment.
They were not lacking in inspiration. The personal phone number of a sports journalist was published on the channel on January 8, followed by that of a Twitch streamer. Both were accused of spreading pro-Palestinian messages. The following day, a Belgian conspiracy theorist was targeted again with the publication of their personal information. On January 12, a journalist from AJ+, a subsidiary of the Qatari channel Al Jazeera, was targeted. On January 19, it was three Toulouse activists from the group Palestine Vaincra. On January 21, an activist from La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left). All received dozens of calls, malicious messages and threats on their cell phones.
The conflict between Israel and Hamas is also a propaganda war being fought on sometimes virtual fronts. According to the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), anti-Semitic acts and comments have exploded in France, particularly on social media. On these same networks, there is also an all-out offensive by supporters of Israel, using methods already employed a few years earlier against leaders of the pro-Palestinian BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement, which called for a boycott of Israeli products.
The Paris prosecutor's office confirms having received at least five complaints relating to the "Jewish Brigade" group alone. A preliminary investigation has been opened, under the direction of the National Center for Combatting Online Hate. In addition to the "Jewish Brigade," several other activists, some gathered under the banner of "Swords of Solomon," have made a specialty of doxing as a means of intimidation, in a way that is at least highly organized. What they all have in common is that they are anonymous.
The method is sophisticated and not limited to the publication of contact details. "Israeli numbers have been calling in droves over and over again," recounted one of the coordinators of Cerfia, a current affairs-focused account on the social media site X, speaking on condition of anonymity. Three Cerfia members were targeted by the "Jewish Brigade" in November.
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