Paris prosecutors have launched a probe into a cyberharassment campaign after Thomas Jolly, the ceremony's artistic director, and other artists involved in the ceremony filed complaints.
France's President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said he was "outraged" by the wave of cyberbullying against the Olympic Games opening ceremony's choreographer Thomas Jolly, adding that "nothing justifies threatening an artist".
"The French were very proud of this ceremony," said Macron on the sidelines of a visit to Paris Olympics volunteers. "France showed its audacity with the artistic freedom that it comes with."
"Its audacity has done many people good," he added.
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Defamation
Although largely praised, the show has also been criticised worldwide by religious authorities and conservative politicians for what they viewed as an offensive reference to The Last Supper.
Prosecutors in the capital on Friday opened an investigation into insults directed against drag queen Nicky Doll, who featured in the controversial scene.
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Doll and other organisers of the event have argued that in fact it depicted a pagan feast, featuring, among others, the Greek god of wine and pleasure, Dionysus.
Doll filed a complaint on Friday alleging public defamation from, among others, the English actor turned activist Laurence Fox, who has more than half a million followers on X, formerly Twitter.
Insults, death threats
For his part, Jolly filed a complaint on Tuesday, explaining he had been "targeted on social media by threatening and insulting messages criticising his sexual orientation and wrongly assumed Israeli origins", the Paris prosecutor's office said.
They were notably investigating death threats against him, it added.
A source close to the case said many of the hate messages had been in English.
French DJ and lesbian activist Barbara Butch, who also took part in the ceremony, filed a complaint with prosecutors earlier this week over cyberbullying and death threats.
Olympics organisers on Friday "firmly condemned" the bullying and offered their support to the artists in question.
"Paris 2024 gives its full support to Thomas Jolly as well as the creators and artists of the opening ceremony in light of the attacks against them," they told French news agency AFP, after Jolly filed an official complaint alleging cyberbullying after the show.
(with AFP)
