This article has been co-written by Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet CEO of MCBG Conseil and Laurent François, co-founder of RE-UP agency. Both of them are French.
It has been a very interesting couple of days in Paris, France. L'Elysée, "the official residence of the President of the French Republic since 1848," a term that also refers to the French Presidency, has decided to launch a brand new Twitter account: @Elysee_Com
The purpose of this new account, paralleling the official @Elysee Twitter account, is to "generate conversations with citizens or journalists, to correct fake or incomplete information spotted online. It's not about creating content but to redirect web users to the right sources," according to the Head of the French Presidency's Communication Department, Gaspard Gantzer.
The logo controversy
Unsurprisingly, French Twitter users welcomed @Elysee_com by bashing its logo.
Was it a reminiscence of Krusty the clown? Or of a fascist symbol? Or of a plane crashing, symbolic of the recent defeat of President François Holland in the local elections?
The new Twitter account almost instantly proved useful by "fact checking" its own detractors: @Elysee_Com redirected users to what the symbol really means, that the symbol is still in use in the French Republic, and dates back to the French Revolution of the French people united in the fight for freedom.
A history lesson in exchange for a mockery
In the beginning, this was not a bad trade. This modernization of the French Republic's symbols is a recent and interesting trait under this Presidency, which went as far as redesigning the main national symbol, "La Marianne," by giving it modern traits - and placing a smartphone in its hands.
The logo controversy ended in a farce. An unofficial account of the Fred & Farid agency tried to mock the new logo, only to be answered by @Elysee_Com that the logo had been originally created for the government by... The Fred & Farid agency.
Hilarity ensued, and the Twitter account now has 17000 followers, most of them pretty "influential" in the media (journalists, bloggers, Parisian elites, and so forth).
Fast, furious and misinformed
The "fact checking" trend has been running strong in the French media for a long time. But it gained strength after the January 2014 terrorists attack, when a flow of unfiltered rumors, potentially endangering the life of actual hostages, were broadcast live to a bewildered audience for two consecutive days.
Bringing some perspective and background in the news cycle has proven to be increasingly difficult especially when unexpected events happen, or when the political debate heats up and "bashing" cycle starts and often gets out of hand.
As a matter of fact, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin found that "60 percent of political reporters' tweets during the 2012 presidential debates were simple stenography - sharing candidates' factual claims without challenging their veracity."
It's no surprise that the French Presidency wants to start a "fact-checking" operation of its own, given that the French President has often complained about being one the main victims of this new "fast and furious" political news cycle.
What lies ahead
The creation of the @Elysee_com account is a pretty bold move, but what does it really mean ? That's maybe the most interesting question raised by this initiative. @Elysée_Com directly dives into the crowd, but of course the account is not really "independent" and will never be perceived as such. It will be perceived as a tool designed by communication specialists that put themselves in the front seat. The paradox being, that all of this effort is accomplished in the name of "fact-checking". That is, in the name of the truth.
One conclusion ensues from all of this. The @Elysee_com is most likely a brand new way of doing a very old thing: educating the "masses" by telling them that what we communicate to them is the actual truth - and expect them to believe it. Because you know, these are "facts." This rather old-fashioned approach to communication is in tune with François Hollande's - and that must be said. It's a large part of the Socialist Party's belief system.
What we see is merely the beginning the 2017 French presidential elections. And this new account will be there to serve a more practical purpose : feeding the accounts of the next-to-be thousands of online supporters that the President will be needing in order to ensure his re-election.
Did you say "fact-checking"?