Zemmour sentenced for text messages sent to Jews?

Eric Zemmour saw his presidential campaign end last night. In the first round, the polemicist collected more than 7% of the vote, far from the leading duo Emmanuel Macron-Marine Le Pen. The writer can all the same boast of having done much better than certain pillars of the political horizon like Anne Hidalgo or Valérie Pécresse. The leader of the Reconquête party waged a campaign at full speed, ready to do anything to bring the voters together, even if it means using non-legal meansespecially concerning people of the Jewish faith.

Zemmour clumsily flirts with Jews

It often seems like anything goes in presidential campaigns, although that’s not quite true. Yes, you can say white to some and black to others, but there are still rules to follow. A basis of behavior that Eric Zemmour seems to ignore. It would indeed seem that his campaign team used a way of doing things that involves serious problems of legality. It was indeed revealed that more than ten thousand people of Jewish faith had received an SMS from the politician on Friday April 8 inviting them to open a link.

Here is the text:

Hello,

I wrote a text for you:

Will we be able to live in peace for a long time in France?

Read it on EZ2022.fr

Your children are counting on you.

EZemmour

Text messages in the name of Eric Zemmour sent to members of the Jewish community, just before Shabbat.

They refer to a site registered by Reconquête, aimed at Jews.

This canvassing would therefore use a database listing French Jews.#presidential2022 pic.twitter.com/JkI0aNZ2cY

— Raphael Grably (@GrablyR) April 8, 2022

By going to the link contained in the message, you arrive on a site that is only intended for people from the Jewish community. The politician protests against the proliferation of anti-Semitic acts, which he compares with ” the expansion of Islam which is ravaging our country“. He also makes a promise not to not prohibit ritual slaughter or circumcision. Here, beyond the shared ideas that seem dangerous in the shortcuts, it is above all the why and how that is pointed out.

From a Z which means “I shouldn’t have”

The National Commission for Computing and Liberties has indeed received many complaints from Jewish people who received this message. This one seems indeed illegal on several points.

First of all, unless Eric Zemmour has entered each number and typed each SMS by hand, this avalanche of text messages looks very much like political canvassing. Out, this one requires the presence in its communications of a mandatory legal notice. The latter must give the recipient the opportunity to oppose the receipt of this type of message. A telephone number or an e-mail must therefore appear for the opposition to be possible.

Finally, according to French law, the use of a database that associates people with their religion is prohibited when it concerns political canvassing. Maître Alexandre Archambault, lawyer specializing in digital law and interviewed by BFM TVrecalls why this is a problem:

It is forbidden to carry out processing on personal data qualified as sensitive. Religious denomination is sensitive data so it is outside the scope of processing, in the same way as health data, racial origin or trade union membership, according to article 9 of the GDPR. If there were a database of French people of the Jewish faith used in this context, it would be totally illegal.

One of the officials of the incriminated campaign nevertheless assures that this was not the case. The list that was used for canvassing would have been purchased from a personal data broker who allegedly targeted people with an interest in “ anti-Semitism in France and in Europe ». However, this in no way excuses the probably illegal nature of the way of doing things, as explained by Maître Oriana Labruyère, lawyer specializing in digital technology:

For the competent authorities, the subject will now be whether the selection of a database based on interest in anti-Semitism leading to the dissemination of a message explicitly targeting the Jewish community could bring this campaign into the political canvassing based on religion and therefore constitute an offence.

The National Commission for Computing and Liberties (CNIL) opened an investigation after a canvassing by SMS from Eric Zemmour’s party targeting French people of the Jewish faith #AFP pic.twitter.com/Jn6itflrhZ

– Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) April 11, 2022

The CNIL has already announced that it has opened an instruction on this canvassing by SMS and be in contact with those responsible for Eric Zemmour’s campaign. It must be said that this kind of canvassing is punishable by a large fine of €300,000 with potentially jail time. Don’t worry though: during the 2017 campaign, Emmanuelle Macron was caught doing abusive cold calling to get people to vote. The CNIL was satisfied with him “remind you of good practices”.