“Je Suis Charlie” As Mass Protest
“Je suis Charlie” as mass protest: analytical reconstruction of emerging publics in France and in global level Panel : T04P03 - Mass protests of new millennia as a challenge to social theory Author : Shota Kakabadze Co-author : Katerina Uzoikina
Following the Islamist attacks on the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris on 7th of January, crowds waved French flags and sang France's national anthem La Marseillaise from Paris to Washington and from Jerusalem to Beirut. All over the world, on every continent the message created by “Charlie Public” has found a response.
The Charlie Hebdo shooting stimulated the creation of global public, which has included not only mass assemblies all over the world, but also strong international movement in social media, uniting not only civil society and global NGO's, but also heads of states and international intergovernmental organizations. Thus, this global consolidation is seen both on street and virtual level, which are interconnected with each other.
Consolidation on a virtual level
Following Mahoni ideas, the new reality totally transforms the features of communication in the modern society - the quality, quantity and speed of information flows, as well as its impact on political communication. New media and information technologies are opening up a range of innovative possibilities for public summoning. And the case of Charlie Hebdo only proves this fact.
The Charlie Hebdo shooting received an outstanding reaction in social media. The message of solidarity with France has united millions of people in the virtual space. Twitter became the main virtual tool of public consolidation and addressing the issue. Martin Grandjean in his article “Les millions de tweets #CharlieHebdo et #JeSuisCharlie”1 tried to visualize the reaction of Twitter users.
The first graph shows the most used hash-tags at the period from 6th of January to 15th of January, the period when the Charlie Hebdo shooting happened and was the item of the world agenda. According to the graph, top-hastags were #CharlieHebdo, #JeSuisCharlie, Charlie Hebdo without hash-tag and #RespectforMuslims. The most popular one was #CharlieHebdo which was used 3 559 000 times by Twitter users on 7th of January and 7 057 100 times in the whole period of analysis (from 6th to 15th of January 2015). The next widespread hash-tag was #JeSuisCharlie, which was used 2 048 000 times at the day of shooting and 5 272 000 times during these 10 days.
Source: http://www.martingrandjean.ch/graphique-charliehebdo-jesuischarlie/
Apart from these main key hashtags there were also some other messages used by the Twitter users at that time. Among them we can find #NousSommesCharlie (which means “We are Charlie”), #JesuisAhmed (in english “I am Ahmed”, the tribute to a Muslim police officer killed during the attack on 7th of January), #JesuisJuif (In English “I am a Jew”, hashtag expressing solidarity for the Jewish people living in France after the attacks on a Jewish Supermarket in Paris in the following days after Charlie Hebdo attack), #LaFranceEstCharlie (in English “France is Charlie”, the hash tag to show French unity) and #NousSommesEnsemble (in English “we are together”, this hashtag was used to show the worldwide unity and solidarity with France), #VoyageAvecMoi (in English “travel with me” to support muslims in fear of travelling after the attack), #TousALaMarcheDu11Janvier (In English “All on the March on 11th of January” which aimed to attract more people to join mass march of solidarity), #JeSuisFlic or #JeSuisPolicier(In English “I am a Police officer” for commemoration of another policeman killed during the terrorist attack), #Killallmuslims (the hashtag has been used in the social network since 2013 and was given a boost by the Charlie Hebdo attack, still its popularity is controversial, as it was also used by people, who criticized this approach. For example, “People have no heart who really want to #KillAllMuslims”), #JesuisKouachi (the opposite campaign used by Islamists to support two brothers Kouachi that were suspected of the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine and then killed by the police), #AnnulezLaMarcheDu11Janvier (In English “Cancel the march on 11th of January” which was used by the users who were afraid of the repeat of the terrorist attack during the march), #JeSuisCharlieMartel (hashtag which remind of Charles Martel, French military leader of the 8th century who went down in history as the savior of Europe from the Arabs at Poitiers), #JeNeSuisPasCharlie (hashtag opposite to “jesuischarlie” and used for different reason by people who did not agree to express solidarity with France) and the last but not the least is #JeSuisNico that was made to make fun of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy who pushed his way to the front during the march of solidarity. These variety of messages, their distribution is shown in the following table and graph. Message Number of tweets from 6th to 15th of January #NousSommesCharlie 203 050 #JesuisAhmed 207 800 #JesuisJuif 62 700 #LaFranceEstCharlie 30 040 #NousSommesEnsemble 4 130 #VoyageAvecMoi 7 530 #TousALaMarcheDu11Janvier 10 230 #JeSuisFlic 13 530 #JeSuisPolicier 19 070 #Killallmuslims 107 400 #JesuisKouachi 46 510 #AnnulezLaMarcheDu11Janvier 104 100 #JeSuisCharlieMartel 4 190 #JeNeSuisPasCharlie 75 200 #JeSuisNico 56 750
Source: http://www.martingrandjean.ch/graphique-charliehebdo-jesuischarlie/
Thus, the analysis of data shows that the most popular messages, that were pushed the process of summoning the virtual public, were “CharlieHebdo” and “JeSuisCharlie”. Now it is also interesting to look, how these key messages were distributed worldwide. For this purpose we will follow Matthew Zook’s article “Mapping the Twitter Reaction to the Charlie Hedbo Attack”2, where the author collected 73,000 geotagged tweets with the hashtags: #charliehebdo or #jesuischarlie that were posted in social network from 7th of January to noon of 8th of January. Zook aggregated these tweets to the country level and normalized by a random sample of tweets in each country during the same time period. This procedure helped to compare the reaction in countries with differences in population and access to the Internet. The author calculated a location quotient for each of the country. The location quotient that is more than 1 shows the higher level of tweets about Charlie Hebdo in comparison with usual amount of tweets in this country. A quotient less
2 http://www.floatingsheep.org/2015/01/mapping-twitter-reaction-to-charlie.html than 1 shows the lower level of tweeting. The results of this analysis are presented in the following table:
This table can be supplemented by the map, created by Rich Donohue, a post-doc at the University of Kentucky Department of Geography. This map shows the widespread reaction on the Charlie Hebdo shooting all around the world. “Red” countries (France, Belgium and French Guyana) have the highest relative number of tweets on Charlie Hebdo. The “orange” countries (Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Cameroon, Lebanon, India and Pakistan) show a greater level of tweets related to Charlie Hebdo than one would expect when taking into account typical level of tweeting in this country. The countries shaded in blue have a lower level of tweets related to Charlie Hebdo than usually and those shaded in grey failed to meet the minimum threshold of tweeting activity (15 tweets) to be included in the analysis. The reaction in France and closest Belgium is comprehensible, as well as great level of tweeting in other neighboring European countries. What is more interesting is the support outside of Europe by the former French colonies: Canada, Algeria, Tunisia and some others that do not have such historical ties: Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan.
Source: http://www.floatingsheep.org/2015/01/mapping-twitter-reaction-to-charlie.html
This global reaction to the Charlie Hebdo shooting caused the translation of the key messages “Je suis Charlie” into other languages. Thus, in an official website of Charlie Hebdo appeared the translated versions of a rallying cry against the gunmen attack on 7th of June. We can find there translations into 7 languages: German, Farsi, Spanish, Arabic, Slovakian, Russian and Czech.
Moreover, Charlie public got a special tool for its consolidation. There was created a special phone application “Je suis Charlie” intended to help users around the world to show their solidarity. The application is provided with the description in the official stores, that state “Because "Je suis Charlie" has become the symbol of freedom of speech whatever your beliefs, your country and your opinions, download the "I am Charlie" app and simply state where you stand on today's world map”. The number of “Charlies”, people who downloaded and used this application is 264 891.
Thus, “je suis Charlie” became a powerful message of public consolidation. One of the reasons for the popularity of the slogan “je suis Charlie” is rooted in the national culture of protest in France. It reminds the similar slogan of the French revolution of May 1968, which was “Nous sommes tous des Juifs allemands” (We are all German Jews).
The slogan "We are all - German Jews" was the response of French students on the attempt of the French authorities to deport one of the leaders of the protest movement in May 1968 - Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a German student of Jewish descent, who studied in the country. According to A. Oleynic3, the slogan of the past and the new one appeared in 2015 looks quite similar, still have the difference, as that from 1968 expresses the collective solidarity, while the new one “je suis charlie” is personalized and became more than “nous sommes charlie”, which also appeared in social media, but did not become the key slogan.
Consolidation of public on the streets
Undoubtedly, mass public actions in solidarity with journalists shot at their job places at magazine Charlie Hedbo united millions of people. The same slogans as “Charlie Hebdo” and “Je suis Charlie” with its translations were used in many cities of France and all other Europe, North and South America, Oceania and even in some Asian and African cities.
First demonstrations happened in France on 7th of January. According to French newspapers, this day approximately 35,000 people gathered in Paris, 15,000 each in Lyon and Rennes, 10,000 people in Nice and Toulouse, 7,000 in Marseille and 5,000 each in Nantes, Grenoble and Bordeaux. All in all, there were more than 100 000 people in total on the French streets on 7th of January.
The demonstrations in France were supported by some other countries. Thus, on 7th of June similar demonstrations under the same slogans happened in Amsterdam. Brussels, Barcelona, Ljubljana, Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Washington, New York, Luxembourg, Seattle, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal. On 8th of May the big demonstrations happened in Australia.
On 10-11th of January there were a series of demonstrations, called Republican marches and aimed to honor the victims of Charlie Hebdo shooting and the following terroristic attacks, to show the solidarity with France and to support freedom of speech. According to French officials, the number of people who participated in these rallies in France was more than 3 700 000 people, so that it
3 http://www.gazeta.ru/comments/2015/01/15_a_6376881.shtml became the largest public gathering in France since 1944, when people celebrated the end of German occupation. Below are the figures for French cities:
10th of January Toulouse 150,000 – 180,000 Nantes 75,000 Marseille 45,000 Strasbourg 45,000 Lille 35,000–40,000 Nice 30,000 Besançon 30,000 Limoges 30,000 Pau 30,000 Orléans 22,000 Agen 13,000 Le Havre 10,000 11th of January Paris 1,500,000–2,000,000
Lyon 330,000
Bordeaux 140,000
Rennes 115,000
Grenoble 110,000
Montpellier 100,000
Saint-Étienne 70,000
Marseille 65,000
Brest 65,000 Nancy 50,000
Strasbourg 45,000
Toulon 45,000
Angers 45,000
Metz 45,000
Aix-en-Provence 40,000
Perpignan 40,000
Tours 35,000
Dijon 35,000
Caen 33,000
Clermont-Ferrand 30,000
Lorient 30,000
Nimes 30,000
Saint-Brieuc 30,000
Reims 25,000
Cherbourg 25,000
Mulhouse 25,000
Quimper 25,000
Angouleme 20,000
Chambery 20,000
Avignon 20,000 Vannes 20,000 Albi 16,000 Alençon 15,000 Bastia 15,000 Bourg en Bresse 15,000
Blois 15,000 Carcassonne 15,000 La Rochelle 15,000 Laval 15,000 Mâcon 15,000 Perigueux 15,000 Poitiers 15,000 Saint-Malo 15,000 Tarbes 14,000 Belfort 13,000 Cognac 11,000 Charleville-Mézières 12,000 Troyes 12,000 Ajaccio 10,000 Cannes 10,000 Bergerac 10,000 Tulle 10,000 Colmar 10,000 Ferney Voltaire 10,000 Libourne 10,000
Dammartin-en-Goële 10,000 Narbonne 10,000
The demonstrations spread to the different corners of the world 456:
City Number of people that participated in public actions Vienna 12 000 Brussels 20 000 Montreal 20 000 Berlin 18 000 Dublin 4 000 Luxembourg 2 000 Lausanne 2000 Stockholm 3 000 Munich 3000
4 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/paris-attacks-rallies-across-canada-support-french-victims-1.2896992 5 http://www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-priorities-2020/world-marches-solidarity-france-311177 6 http://www.timesofisrael.com/marches-held-from-gaza-to-tokyo-in-solidarity-with-france/ Washington 3 000 London 2 000 San Francisco 2 000 Lausanne 2000 San Francisco 2000 Jerusalem 1000 Rome 1000 Milan 1000 Cardiff 1000 Buenos Aires 1000 Sydney 500-1000 Madrid 500-1000 Athens 500 Bangkok 500 Geneva 500 Oslo 500 Boston 500 Cluj-Napoca 500 Brasilia 300 Rio de Janeiro 250 Beirut 200 Tokyo 200 Guadalajara 200 Rammallah 200 Lisbon 200 Caracas 200 Istanbul 120 Moscow 100
Smaller gatherings took place in Delhi, Tunis, Gaza, Warsaw, Seoul, Kiev and some other cities.