The scandal of the Liga del LOL, the private Facebook group of French journalists who harassed their female colleagues

A group of prestigious and experienced French journalists were dismissed or suspended from the media in which they worked for allegedly orchestrating harassment through a private Facebook group.

The group, known as the LOL League - to which only men belonged - mocked women, including other fellow journalists, with jokes about rapes and high-sex images altered with Photoshop.

Dozens of women reported being victims of the group since it was discovered by the French newspaper Libération.

In fact, the editor of the Internet version of Libération, Alexandre Hervaud, is among the journalists suspended.

But how did the controversial group work?

Some people within the LOL League created anonymous accounts on Twitter with the idea of ​​harassing other journalists, writers and activists. The majority, women.

Vincent Glad, a well-known contributor to Libération, admitted that he had founded the group in 2009 and was also suspended from the newspaper.

Glad apologized on Twitter and noted that he now realized that such "practices were unacceptable" and that the fun was not "when acting like a pack".

For his part, Hervaud apologized on his Twitter account.

"I offer my sincere apologies to those who have felt hurt," he wrote.

He added: "Our objective was never to launch a coordinated campaign against anyone, which, of course, does not minimize or deny the obvious." The group's permanent spirit of mockery and cynicism obviously influenced the actions of certain members, who used the anonymity to create a 'snowball' effect that negatively inspired others off the internet. "

Libération is now conducting an internal investigation around Hervaud and Glad.

Victims
The journalists Nora Bouazzouni, Lucile Bellan and Mélanie Wanga said they were victims of the group.

In a tweet, presenter Florence Porcer said a man called her on her phone posing as an editor of a major news program.

Porcer pointed out that the man in question had interviewed her for a job that did not exist and then she had posted the audio of the conversation on the internet.

"When the audio went public, I cried with shame three days in a row," Porcel said.

David Doucet, the editor of the magazine Les Inrockuptibles, confessed that he was the one who had made the false interview and asked Porcel's public apology.

Others involved in the scandal were career journalists and executives of important media such as Slate France and the public relations firm Publicis.

France's Minister of Digital Affairs, Mounir Mahjoubi, described LOL League members as "losers".

"It's a bunch of guys riding on the power of having fun at the expense of people, but with the seriousness that those jokes have an effect on real life," Mahjoubi said.