The Instagram accounts of two journalists of ‘Charlie Hebdo’ were suspended for several hours after they shared a photo from the front page of the paper dedicated to the trail of January 2015 attacks. In 2015, Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of Prophet Muhammad that led to an attack on their office.
Instagram suspends accounts of two #CharlieHebdo journalists who posted Prophet Muhammad cartoons https://t.co/XLK9YhgzRL
— Golnaz Esfandiari (@GEsfandiari) September 6, 2020
Laure Daussy, Journalist at Charlie Hebdo, reported the blockage of her account on Twitter. She said, “My Instagram account has been deactivated. The last photo I posted was the front page of Charlie Hebdo.” She said it might be because of hacking or mass reporting, which is a new form of censorship and it is ‘mind-blowing.’
Mon compte #instagram a été “désactivé”. La dernière photo que j’avais postée était la #Une de @Charlie_Hebdo_ C’est donc probablement un piratage ou un signalement en masse, nouvelle forme de #censure. Hallucinant. pic.twitter.com/URhKpeFxjm
— Laure Daussy (@LaureDaussy) September 5, 2020
Corrine Rey, known as Coco, informed on his Twitter account that a similar thing has happened to her account as well. She said, “like my colleague from Charlie Hebdo, Laure Daussy, my Instagram account was deactivated following the broadcast of the cover with the cartoons of [Prophet] Muhammad.” She called it ‘simply scandalous.’
Comme ma consoeur de @Charlie_Hebdo_ , @LaureDaussy , mon compte #Instagram a été désactivé suite à la diffusion de la couverture « Tout ça pour ça » avec les #caricatures de #Mahomet
— Corinne (@cocoboer) September 6, 2020
Tout simplement scandaleux. pic.twitter.com/kwHnq4obnx
The satirical newspaper told AFP that the said issue was sold out on day one, and they had to reprint it. A total of 200,000 copies were printed, which is three times the usual number. The trial for the case began last week and the paper republished the cartoons to remember those who were killed in the attack. France’s president Emmanuel Macron also came in support of the paper and denied to condemn republishing of the cartoon.
