French government representatives and members of victims’ support groups are participating in a two-day forum on how to manage the rise of gurus and sects, particularly present online. This amid a sharp increase in the number of complaints about these groups.
For the first time, the French government is holding a two-day symposium dedicated to the problem of sectarian activities, a phenomenon that is on the rise in France.
The inter-ministerial mission Miviludes in November reported that there had been 4,020 complaints in 2021, an increase of 33.6 percent in one year.
"It is undoubtedly the tip of the iceberg", the Secretary of State in charge of Citizenship, Sonia Backès told French radio channel France Inter on the first day of discussions.
A “sectarian aberration” is defined by Miviludes as “a manipulation of freedom of thought, opinion or religion that undermines public order, laws or regulations, fundamental rights, to the safety or integrity of persons”.
The government is keen to highlight that abuse can come in all forms, from religious indoctrination to money management plans to advice on health and well-being.
Rise of conspiracy theories
Behind the evolution of this alarming trend is the emergence of social networks and the rise of influencers. With this, the exponential growth of conspiracy theories.
“They always follow the same logic, selling you happiness, miracle recipes, especially when you are faced with illness. They exploit all the flaws, all the vulnerabilities, all the weaknesses that can affect each of us,” Christian Gravel, the president of Miviludes, told France Info on Thursday.
He says the agency has seen an 86 percent increase in complaints in the past five years.
Backès deplores the fact that a whole generation now finds its information "almost exclusively on social networks", where legitimate news is presented through the same platforms as fake news.
"It’s not normal that as soon as we see a video on the Internet promising us healing, we believe it," she says.
She has previously warned about "health-related excesses" especially noticeable following the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, either in relation to miracle cures or messages from anti-vaccination groups.
"We are talking about people who call themselves naturopaths and who sell alternative treatments to traditional and verified treatments", she explains.
She gave the example of "the raw food movement", represented in particular by YouTuber Thierry Casasnovas, who has been the object of 54 complaints.
"These are people who say: stop radiotherapy, chemotherapy, when you have cancer, and drink vegetable juices, you will be cured."
Financial consequences
"The difficulty arises when there is mental influence and endangerment", she continues, deploring also the financial consequences linked to these excesses.
Backès believes that "the first objective is prevention", in the fight against sects and groups that take advantage of vulnerable people.
"A lot of things go under the radar and we don't know exactly how many people are really affected", Backès says, adding that around 500,000 people had been victims of some kind of sectarian abuse, a figure that dates “back a few years”.
That’s why she hopes that the two-day consultation will make it possible to draw up a "precise inventory" and to set "an action plan”.
The government will put forward its communication campaign to help citizens "be vigilant" on the subject of indoctrination and manipulation.
The minister says a special alert hotline will be set up, run in partnership with the France Victimes association. Whether it be in a professional context, or in schools, everyone can play a part by signalling worrying sudden behavioural changes in the people around them, she says.
Christian Gravel says most victims are unaware that they are victims of mind control by cult entrepreneurs.
“Very often, it is the relatives who alert us” he told France Info.
“What should alert us is the change in behaviour, the change in discourse. When you have a gradual break with the environment, society, institutions,” he says.
“It has nothing to do with a question of naivety. We must not underestimate the intelligence of those we have in front of us”.
Alert at European level
There’s a huge job of training and education to accompany not just young people but the population at large.
This should be not only on a French level, but a European one, Backès insists.
"If we want platforms to be able to have an alert system to remove content deemed dangerous, we have to do it on a European scale," she says.
She also hopes the symposium will address the legal framework and application. She acknowledged the “About-Picard” law of 2021, which qualifies the phenomenon of psychological influence and therefore opens the way to legal sanctions.
However, she admits that the law is cumbersome and that more tools are needed to make it truly effective, including a simplification of reporting procedures.
Backès speaks from personal experience, because her mother belonged to the sect of the Church of Scientology. She has therefore seen first-hand how "when entering an organization of a sectarian nature, it is very difficult to leave". She testifies to the difficulty for those around the victims who are "completely helpless”
