Teen Faces Death Threats Over Mecca Joke Tweet, French Official Defends Free Speech

While internet users denounce a lack of respect for the Muslim religion, the Secretary of State for Gender Equality has rather reacted to the threats against this teenager who tweeted a joke about the pilgrimage to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.

Indeed, on her Twitter account, Marlène Schiappa wrote that "France is a secular Republic, where everyone can criticize and mock religions without being threatened with death for it." And she added that "Blasphemy does not exist. On the other hand, cyberbullying in a pack has been punished since this summer by law."

The incriminating message shows a photo of the pilgrimage with the comment "Ptdr there are people at InZeBoite". For its part, Le Parisien recalls that "InZeBoite refers to a TV game show of the same name broadcast on the Gulli channel. Two groups compete in a series of questions. The winners then face the Black Box, a maze where they have to progress in the dark," explains the French daily.

Hugo’s apologies to internet users

Faced with the scale of the strong reactions to his tweet, Hugo, as he calls himself, posted a second message on Sunday morning. In this message, the teenager says he "never wanted to offend anyone." Hugo, who is in an apologetic approach, tweeted again, saying "For all the people who saw my tweet, excuse me. I didn’t know it was going to get so big. Sorry again. Let me live." Supported by several other Twitter users with the hashtag #JeSoutiensHugo, the teenager mainly asked internet users to "Stop wanting violence for nothing, there is much worse in this world and on Twitter."