In the wake of Algerian influencers calling for acts of violence against French citizens, Le Figaro gives a rundown on the seven key figures who have been arrested this month.
Zazou Youcef
The first influencer to be arrested was known on TikTok as “Zazou Youcef,” real name Youcef A.. Followed by more than 400,000 people on TikTok before the platform banned his account for “non-compliance with community rules,” the 25-year-old threatened to commit attacks against people who demonstrated against the Algerian regime on New Year’s Eve.
“We’re going to do to you like in the 90s. We’re going to shoot you (…) Do you want to go out on January 1? Shoot them, we have to make the guns talk. (Algerian) President Tebboune, shoot them, they want chaos,” he explained on camera, in Arabic, while miming gunfire with his hands. He was arrested on Jan. 3 and will be tried on Feb. 24 in Brest.
It can only be assumed that Youcef was referring to the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria (GIA), known for bringing the Algerian Civil War to the streets of France, with various attacks in 1995 that left eight dead and close to 200 injured. The group also hijacked an Air France flight, seeking to blow the plane up over Paris; the plane ultimately landed in Marseille, with special forces killing all four hijackers; however, the group had already murdered six people onboard.
ImadTintin
Accused of having posted two videos on TikTok, with a following of 70,000, inciting the killing and rape of anyone opposing the Algerian regime, “Imad Tintin” was also arrested on Jan. 3 by the authorities in Échirolles, a suburb of Grenoble. The man, whose real name is Imad OB, aged 31, was subject, like Zazou Youcef, to an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory). His trial will be held on March 5 in Grenoble.
Doualemn
On Sunday, Jan. 5, a third Algerian influencer was arrested in Montpellier. Doualemn Naman, known by his social media name “Doualemn,” also allegedly published videos calling for the murder of opponents of the Algerian regime on his TikTok account. Since Algeria refused to take him back, Doualemn is currently being held in the Mesnil-Amelot detention center (Seine-et-Marne).
This is not the first time Algeria has refused to accommodate a deportation order, and French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said last week that France may cut the number of short-term Schengen visas issued to Algerian nationals until the government starts accepting those citizens it sends back. Such threats, however, are empty, as any such limit on visas into the EU would require a common EU resolution to enforce.
Sofia Benlemmane
Followed by 300,000 people, former soccer player and Lyon influencer Sofia Benlemmane was arrested on Jan. 6 with two other men. She is notably accused of a video on TikTok made in September, in which she copiously insults another woman in Arabic, notably telling her “fuck your mother, you and your France.” In another post reportedly said, “Go to hell, you filthy race of Jews.” She goes to trial on March 18.
Abdesslam “Bazooka”
Like Sofia Benlemmane, Abdesslam “Bazooka” was arrested in Lyon on Jan. 6. In one of his videos published on Dec. 10, he calls opponents of the Algerian government “traitors” and threatens to “slit their throats.”
Laksas06
Arrested with Benlemmane and Bazooka, “Laksas06” posted a video on Dec. 11 where she speaks of Algerians living in France as “sleeping soldiers” ready to become “martyrs” to defend Algeria.
The day after the arrest of the three influencers, the Lyon prosecutor’s office announced the opening of two criminal investigations: one for “incitement to commit a crime or an offense,” and another for “death threats and public incitement to hatred.” The office said the investigations target two of these three influencers based in Lyon but did not specify which two.
Mahdi B.
On Jan. 14, another Algerian influencer, 29-year-old Mahdi B., was arrested in Seine-Saint-Denis for having boasted in a video “of wanting to commit violent acts on French soil.” He was tried immediately, convicted, and sentenced to eight months in prison. The video he is suspected of having posted online allegedly made reference, in Arabic, to terrorism “returning” or to “planting a bomb at La Défense.”
Le Figaro also wrote about yet another Algerian influencer now on the authorities’ radar for hate posting. The home of Rafik Meziane was searched on Jan. 22, after “a report made on the PHAROS platform and relating in particular to a republishing of a video,” the Paris prosecutor’s office told the paper.
PHAROS ( Platform for Harmonization, Analysis, Cross-check and Orientation of Reportings) is run by France’s Anti-Cybercrime Office (OFAC) and allows the public to submit concerns related to online posts that are suspected of illegal activity, including financial scams, incitement and threats.
It is largely due to Algerian blogger Chawki Benzehra that the above arrests were made, as the influencer has gone from speaking out against France to taking down those online calling for violence on French streets.
The whistleblower, whose bio on X says he is an “Algerian political activist refugee in France,” posted about the death threats he has received:
“A torrent of death threats has been targeting me since I raised the alarm about the Algerian influencers affair, threats coming mostly from France and in particular on the Tiktok platform, going so far as to share my address in Lyon and with thousands of death threats in my private messaging and in videos and live broadcasts. I refuse to remain silent or stop this work which is necessary but I hope that these threats are taken into account by the authorities and that measures will be taken urgently. I have been threatened for several years, but what I have been experiencing in recent hours is beyond comparison.”
France has had issues with its large Algerian community for decades. As of 2023, those born in Algeria made up the largest migrant group in France at 12.2% (followed by Morocco at 11.7%), with data from INED in 2021 showing 866,600 Algerian immigrants living In France, and data from 2022 showing that there were 1.2 million descendants of those born in Algeria also living in France.
However, recently, the slew of incidents of incitement against France and French citizens has hit a high note, with authorities on alert.
Remix News has reported on a slew of crimes, from robbing the elderly at knifepoint to gang rapes, theft, and other obscene violent crimes.
The French government has held talks on what measures to take to ease the tensions with both Algerians living in France and Algeria itself, with the interior minister stating that “neither France nor Algeria had any interest in creating lasting tension” between them.
Just last Friday, the European Parliament also passed a resolution demanding that Algeria release imprisoned critics of the current government, including the writer Boualem Sansal, a French-Algerian dual national who was arrested in November last year in Algiers after his flight from Paris had landed.
