"It is like being insulted in your workplace": harassed, three influencers testify

It's a full-time job, which can't be learned in a school: being an influencer on social networks. They have daily digital activity, sometimes as early as adolescence for some, but can also face floods of insults.

"I was harassed and I had been beaten at school in Corsica, we moved with my family to Nice. I took refuge on YouTube. It was the beginning of LGBT youtubers who began to talk about the taboo subject homosexuality. What does it mean to be cyberstalked? I have to put out four videos a day knowing that I'm going to get burned, insulted, over every detail of every single one of my videos. are videos that make me laugh and make my family and loved ones laugh. Yet people insult me, either because I am me, or because the video did not like it, or because I did not worn the right clothes, etc.

We evolve with hate. I get insulted on the networks, every minute of my life. But it's not a total reflection of society either, it's an extract of society. I feel like there are fewer filters on TikTok. The worst are the death threats. You never know if it's true or not. People have already found my address and come downstairs to insult me.

I dare to wear make-up, I defend my vision of men and, of course, some people don't like it. The smallest detail can be criticized. I never answer directly. I prefer to ridicule certain remarks, with derision, and make a video of them. As I speak to you, my face is painted red, like a devil. I'm preparing my next video. I try to spy on those who insult me, to see how old they are. My mother, it touches her with extreme force. She watches everything, I had to ask her to stop TikTok. It hurts him so much. There are times when, yes, you want to stop."

"Seeing this hatred on social networks, it hurt"

Emma alias Iam.moana, 18 years old, 426k followers on Instagram, 1.8 million on TikTok.

"When I was in second grade, I had more than 10,000 subscribers. One of my videos made in my bedroom caused a stir. On social networks, you never have the right to be sad , to show our moods, and we can be insulted on social networks because of that. We are told that we have money, we are known, we make videos. If tomorrow, I make a video where I say I'm unhappy, I'm sure to have at least 70% negative reactions in my comments, like "you have no right to complain, you're famous".

I don't pay attention to these messages anymore, I don't live for others. When I was younger, I used to watch this a lot. Besides, I had no self-confidence at all. Even during a presentation in class, I cried so much I was nervous. Suddenly, seeing this hatred on social networks, it hurt.

What do I recommend to those who are starting out? Create a bubble, share things. No matter the age, one shouldn't receive so much hate and criticism. Of course, when you're younger, you don't have the maturity to say: 'OK, who cares, it's only people who are jealous'. When I was younger, I was criticized a lot for my hairiness. There are some heartbreaking comments. Because you ask yourself 'why? What did I do ?' I'm good in my life, I work, I have my friends, I'm quiet, I give a good mood on social networks. Why so much hate? It's true that sometimes I tell myself that.

Retweet aggressively pleaseee!! https://t.co/IJYMwrOn5P

— Victory-jane Wed Oct 21 17:02:01 +0000 2020

Even if we are going to denounce this cyberbullying there, there is not really a follow-up. It could very well continue and I don't know what we could do to stop it. When someone insults me, what do you want me to do? I can not do anything. I just have to cash in. There are a lot of content creators looking at their comments all the time. Me, I start from the principle that if I like, I don't care a bit about people's eyes. I find that now people are asking more and more to fake and show the dream on social networks."

"It's so anxiety-provoking every day to open social networks"

Marion alias "Marion Caméléon", 32 years old, on social networks full-time since 2017, makeup artist by training, 775k followers on Instagram.

"Cyberbullying starts a lot on Twitter, yet I'm not there, and I'm very happy. Subscribers send me screens, it's very anxiety-provoking. It starts on Twitter then people come to harass influencers or personalities on other networks. It happened to me in 2015. I was not at all prepared for it, it was not my job yet. I had just done makeup that was offensive to some people . I received insulting messages. They put a lot of comments and messages. We end up blocking these people, but they recreate accounts. I got scared so I deleted the post, then reposted by removing what has been the subject of criticism, but again they found something else.

I experienced this again in 2020, with a video released a few years earlier and taken out of context. They came to harass me on social networks. I went to these accounts, what people were writing. They talk about everyone and sometimes they are people who report harassment when they do the same thing. Today, there is no sanction against those who harass on the networks.

Comments are the link we have with our community. We can't stop reading them. It happened to me, I looked over all my posts and comments. We lose this link we have with the community, but it's so anxiety-provoking every day to open social networks and say to yourself 'Ah but what are they going to say about me again today? '. It's true that when it happens, we wonder if we'll get out of it one day, when it's going to stop.

We are not prepared for all this. I don't know what it is to be a public figure, to be an actor, but we are not surrounded like them. I was all alone at the time. I didn't know how to react. It's still a job that is not easy because there is no influencer school. I would advise people starting out to purge their Twitter and Instagram, to delete all old posts because there are things that were tolerated ten years ago that are not today."

"It's deafening to see so many messages"

Thierry Gradoni, 52, has been the CEO of Babylone Digital Agency, an influencer agency, for five years.

"I got into the business thanks to my daughter. When she was ten, she started posting videos, and was very successful. Until she was 14, she had a lot of subscribers , she received 3,000 messages a day. On average, there are 1 to 2% of haters, who will insult and talk nonsense. To be transparent, we have also received photos of genitals, things like that. We We also did what was necessary behind to block the accounts. It's deafening to see so many messages.

We have thirty influencers in our agency, from 15 to 35 years old. When I approach a young content creator, the first message is for the influencer, but the second is immediately for the parents. This is not easy for parents, who know nothing about social networks. The first time I meet the parents and their son, I talk about the dark side of social networks, the harassment that can happen, whether it's in the street, following a video that has been made, or after a photo that can be misunderstood. Afterwards, from the start, the young people know it. When we contact them, they already have a small community, and they have already been confronted with this.

We have workers at Instagram, Facebook and YouTube who can intervene to help us in the event of cyberbullying. But it's a bit of a Damocles sword over your head because it can happen to anyone."