A French newspaper boss has been forced to quit after ‘liking’ posts on LinkedIn written by right-wing politicians like Sarah Knafo and Marion Maréchal. The thought police did their work: after being forced to self-criticise in Stalinist mode, he ended up resigning.
The alarm was raised by the investigative newspaper Mediapart, notorious for its left-wing activism. In an article, Mediapart ‘revealed’ that Philippe Carli, head of the Ebra press group, France’s leading regional daily press group, which manages large-circulation titles such as Le Progrès and Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace, regularly liked posts on his LinkedIn account from Reconquête MEP Sarah Knafo, personalities from the Rassemblement National (RN), and reposted videos from the CNews news channel.
“The boss of Ebra cherishes the far-right,” concluded Mediapart, expressing its indignation. Philippe Carli, caught in the act of thoughtcrime, offered several explanations in an attempt to defend himself. First, he claimed that his LinkedIn account was managed by another person, with whom he said he was “very unhappy.” However, he then changed his tune and launched into a full-scale self-criticism. An article signed by him appeared on Sunday, January 26th in the nine regional titles published by his group by way of apology: “Yes, my hasty use of social media was clumsy. I’m sorry about that. This is not who I am as a man and as the head of an independent press group,” it read.
But the media gesture was not enough for the unions, who upped the ante the very next day. The CFDT, one of France’s biggest unions, pointed out that it had warned several weeks ago about Philippe Carli’s “excesses,” to no avail. The CGT, another major union, went even further: “We, the Filpac-CGT’s elected representatives, strongly condemn Philippe Carli’s declared proximity to extreme right-wing figures and call on our shareholder, Crédit Mutuel, a mutualist bank whose values are freedom, solidarity, democracy and independence, to draw all the necessary conclusions,” explained a press release issued by the union representatives.
The call could not have been clearer: there was no longer any question of Philippe Carli remaining in his post. On Tuesday, January 28th, in the face of pressure, the group director finally tendered his resignation. “Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale takes note of the resignation of Mr Philippe Carli from his position as chairman of the Ebra group,” stated the bank, which owns the media group, in a press release. It then praised this “responsible decision, which should enable the editorial teams of the Ebra group to regain their serenity in an economic climate that remains difficult for the sector.”
The wording of the press release is significant. Simply liking posts on social media by personalities from the national Right—who are legally elected and exercise representative mandates on behalf of the French people—seems to disturb the ‘serenity’ of the press world, whose vocation is clearly to present, like the Soviet Pravda, a uniform left-wing way of thinking. The speed with which the boss of one of France’s biggest press groups had to step aside speaks volumes about the Left’s undiminished ability to exercise thought terrorism and moral dictatorship over the media—despite the undeniable advance of national right-wing ideas in the public arena and in popular representation.
Back in June, Elon Musk introduced anonymous likes on X so that users would not get caught up in the game of self-censorship. At the time, the French daily Le Monde accused him of “encouraging the sharing of subversive content.” The Carli case, settled in a matter of days, is further proof of the fragility of freedom of expression on social media.
