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| The coded Twitter leaks that jumped the French election gun | The coded Twitter leaks that jumped the French election gun |
| (1 day later) | |
| The French can be impatient – some internet users wanted to know the results of the presidential election's first round before they were officially disclosed at 8pm on Sunday – which goes against election laws. So just like General de Gaulle during the second world war, codes on Twitter were used with the hashtag #radiolondres to leak preliminary results that were available abroad (from 1940 to 1944, de Gaulle broadcast to his people on "Radio Londres"). | The French can be impatient – some internet users wanted to know the results of the presidential election's first round before they were officially disclosed at 8pm on Sunday – which goes against election laws. So just like General de Gaulle during the second world war, codes on Twitter were used with the hashtag #radiolondres to leak preliminary results that were available abroad (from 1940 to 1944, de Gaulle broadcast to his people on "Radio Londres"). |
| On va se faire un code. "Le flan est au four" ça veut dire Hollande au 2nd tour. "La tomate est mûre", ça veut dire Mélenchon. | On va se faire un code. "Le flan est au four" ça veut dire Hollande au 2nd tour. "La tomate est mûre", ça veut dire Mélenchon. |
| — Guillaume Champeau (@gchampeau) April 18, 2012 | |
| "We're going to use a code. 'Flan is in the oven' means François Hollande has reached the second round. 'Tomato is ripe' means it's Mélenchon." Flan, or Flanby, a French flan brand, is a nickname for the Socialist candidate, mainly because of his shape. | |
| After Guillaume Champeau, editor of tech website Numerama.com, published the above tweet , what started as a joke quickly picked up pace. Users began to play hide and seek with the authorities, using metaphors to reveal the results. | After Guillaume Champeau, editor of tech website Numerama.com, published the above tweet , what started as a joke quickly picked up pace. Users began to play hide and seek with the authorities, using metaphors to reveal the results. |
| The presidential campaign was boring. No wonder, then, that a lot of journalists and some canny web users found a way to spice things up at the very end. Code names were easy to guess: there was "Hungary" vs "Netherlands" (Nicolas Sarkozy's father is from Hungary, Hollande means Netherlands in English), "Fouquet's" (the expensive restaurant where Sarkozy had dinner after he won five years ago), "dew" for Hollande (rosée in French, rose being the Socialist party's symbol), "tomato" for leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and "green spring" for Eva Joly: any symbol was a clue. | The presidential campaign was boring. No wonder, then, that a lot of journalists and some canny web users found a way to spice things up at the very end. Code names were easy to guess: there was "Hungary" vs "Netherlands" (Nicolas Sarkozy's father is from Hungary, Hollande means Netherlands in English), "Fouquet's" (the expensive restaurant where Sarkozy had dinner after he won five years ago), "dew" for Hollande (rosée in French, rose being the Socialist party's symbol), "tomato" for leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and "green spring" for Eva Joly: any symbol was a clue. |
| Champeau was one of the first to tweet using the hashtag #RadioLondres. It read like poetry: | Champeau was one of the first to tweet using the hashtag #RadioLondres. It read like poetry: |
| Le ciel bleu se couvre. La rosée perle sur le jardin. #RadioLondres | Le ciel bleu se couvre. La rosée perle sur le jardin. #RadioLondres |
If you publish the results before 8pm on election night, you face a €75,000 fine – an investigation was opened late Sunday, with relevant authorities aiming to crack down on media agencies who allegedly broke the law; anyone tweeting the results with these code words could also have been sued by the national commission for electoral campaign (CNCCEP). But with the avalanche of messages posted between 6pm and 8pm, it could be tricky. French media journalist Emmanuel Berretta nonetheless said on his Twitter account that screen shots of culpable tweets were referred to the prosecutor's office on Monday. | If you publish the results before 8pm on election night, you face a €75,000 fine – an investigation was opened late Sunday, with relevant authorities aiming to crack down on media agencies who allegedly broke the law; anyone tweeting the results with these code words could also have been sued by the national commission for electoral campaign (CNCCEP). But with the avalanche of messages posted between 6pm and 8pm, it could be tricky. French media journalist Emmanuel Berretta nonetheless said on his Twitter account that screen shots of culpable tweets were referred to the prosecutor's office on Monday. |
| And yet, everyone was at it. Even French satirist Didier Porte – sacked from the radio station France Inter in 2010 because Sarkozy thought he was "insulting, vulgar and nasty" – sent a short message about Sarkozy's possible failure. Porte referred to the UMP poster in which Sarkozy stands in front of the Aegean Sea with the logo "La France Forte" (Hollande had said a few days earlier that Sarkozy "would hit the wave"). | And yet, everyone was at it. Even French satirist Didier Porte – sacked from the radio station France Inter in 2010 because Sarkozy thought he was "insulting, vulgar and nasty" – sent a short message about Sarkozy's possible failure. Porte referred to the UMP poster in which Sarkozy stands in front of the Aegean Sea with the logo "La France Forte" (Hollande had said a few days earlier that Sarkozy "would hit the wave"). |
| #RadioLondres La vague est montée mais il a toujours pied, je répète, la vague est montée mais il a toujours pied... | #RadioLondres La vague est montée mais il a toujours pied, je répète, la vague est montée mais il a toujours pied... |
Criticised for his personal "bling-bling" style during the last five years, our incumbent president's special shoes were also referred to: | Criticised for his personal "bling-bling" style during the last five years, our incumbent president's special shoes were also referred to: |
| Les talonnettes sont dans les cartons je répète les talonnettes sont dans les cartons #radiolondres | Les talonnettes sont dans les cartons je répète les talonnettes sont dans les cartons #radiolondres |
Jokes were made about our first lady, who married Sarkozy only a few months after he was elected: | Jokes were made about our first lady, who married Sarkozy only a few months after he was elected: |
| Carla Sarkozy serait sur le point de modifier son statut Facebook de "Mariée" en "C'est compliqué" #RadioLondres | Carla Sarkozy serait sur le point de modifier son statut Facebook de "Mariée" en "C'est compliqué" #RadioLondres |
We also discussed the weather. This tweet was published at 6:57pm, an hour before the first voting estimates were due to be published. Belgium and Switzerland had the results already via news websites, and any Twitter user could then link to it and invent a code to reveal the estimates: | We also discussed the weather. This tweet was published at 6:57pm, an hour before the first voting estimates were due to be published. Belgium and Switzerland had the results already via news websites, and any Twitter user could then link to it and invent a code to reveal the estimates: |
| Apparemment la météo mondiale donne : 27° à Amsterdam, 26° à Budapest, 17° à Nuremberg, 14° à Cuba et 10° à Pau #RadioLondres | Apparemment la météo mondiale donne : 27° à Amsterdam, 26° à Budapest, 17° à Nuremberg, 14° à Cuba et 10° à Pau #RadioLondres |
(Nuremberg stands for the Front National leader Marine Le Pen, a reference to fascism; Budapest stood for Hungary, where Sarkozy's father is born; Cuba is communist and refers to leftist candidate Mélenchon; Pau is the city Bayrou comes from). | (Nuremberg stands for the Front National leader Marine Le Pen, a reference to fascism; Budapest stood for Hungary, where Sarkozy's father is born; Cuba is communist and refers to leftist candidate Mélenchon; Pau is the city Bayrou comes from). |
| We also used culinary metaphors – after all, we're French. Mélenchon was associated with tomatoes. The leftist known as the best orator of this campaign scored lower than expected. Here is what Champeau tweeted at 7:24pm: | We also used culinary metaphors – after all, we're French. Mélenchon was associated with tomatoes. The leftist known as the best orator of this campaign scored lower than expected. Here is what Champeau tweeted at 7:24pm: |
| La tomate est moins mûre qu'attendue. Il a trop plu. #RadioLondres | La tomate est moins mûre qu'attendue. Il a trop plu. #RadioLondres |
Football is important as well. This tweet was posted on Saturday: | Football is important as well. This tweet was posted on Saturday: |
| Demain match Pays-Bas-Hongrie sur toutes les chaînes dès 20h. #radiolondres | Demain match Pays-Bas-Hongrie sur toutes les chaînes dès 20h. #radiolondres |
| In the end, a lot of us understood, without much surprise and way before 8pm, that Sarkozy would face Hollande in the second round. Some of us didn't forget our French legendary cynicism: | In the end, a lot of us understood, without much surprise and way before 8pm, that Sarkozy would face Hollande in the second round. Some of us didn't forget our French legendary cynicism: |
| Je clique sur le hashtag #RadioLondres et je peux d'ores et déjà vous dire que le grand perdant de cette élection, c'est l'humour. | Je clique sur le hashtag #RadioLondres et je peux d'ores et déjà vous dire que le grand perdant de cette élection, c'est l'humour. |
| It is true that at 8pm, it was no longer time to joke around, especially since Le Pen had gathered 17.9% of votes – the highest score the extreme-right party had obtained since its creation in 1972. But all these tweets created quite an internet manifesto and showed how clever users could be to bypass outdated laws. We'll also keep a more "traditional" brand of humour for a few more days, embezzling our first lady's image and making fun of and creating .gifs of our candidates, since it doesn't change the race significantly. After all, as the gently mocking Jean-René Craypion likes to underline in his humorous video, we still try to convince ourselves that France retains its "triple @@@". | It is true that at 8pm, it was no longer time to joke around, especially since Le Pen had gathered 17.9% of votes – the highest score the extreme-right party had obtained since its creation in 1972. But all these tweets created quite an internet manifesto and showed how clever users could be to bypass outdated laws. We'll also keep a more "traditional" brand of humour for a few more days, embezzling our first lady's image and making fun of and creating .gifs of our candidates, since it doesn't change the race significantly. After all, as the gently mocking Jean-René Craypion likes to underline in his humorous video, we still try to convince ourselves that France retains its "triple @@@". |
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