FOCUS – The Isère media Dauphinois Sport (LSD), which broadcasts amateur matches and live shows on Facebook for free, has been blocked and censored since the beginning of December 2022. violence” for fencing). After eight years of existence and seven days of suspension, the account of LSD is now threatened with permanent closure in the next Direct retransmitted. Which would certainly lead to the disappearance of the medium – entirely dependent on the social network – with six jobs at stake.
” We managed to survive the Covid and we risk biting the dust because of an algorithm. » Hugo Galatioto, editor-in-chief of the Dauphinois sport (LSD), does not hide his bitterness. in early December 2022, the is Sinceérois media saw its content blocked and deleted by Facebook. And if his page has been active again since Wednesday, December 14, after seven days of suspension, it is now under the permanent threat of permanent closure, synonymous with almost certain disappearance for the company.
Hugo Galatioto, editor-in-chief of Sport dauphinois (presenting here the program “Déblayage” on amateur rugby), is sounding the alarm at the risk of disappearance of the media, blocked and censored by Facebook. © DSL
How did we get here ? Professional media – declared as such – existing for eight years, Dauphinois Sport today has an editor-in-chief, a journalist who has held a press card since 2015, five other employees and salaried technicians, and around ten freelancers (reporters and photographers). After five years of “classic” coverage of local sports news, the Covid led him to ” editorial line changer “says Hugo Galatioto.
three years, Le Sport dauphinois has been broadcasting live amateur sports matches every weekend with multi-cameras, mainly in Isère but also in Savoie, Haute-Savoie and in the Rhône. © DSL
For the third consecutive season, Dauphinois Sport thus broadcasts local sports programs live from its TV set and multi-camera matches, with commentators and slow motion, two to three times Lives per weekend. ” Over the past three years, we have broadcast 280 matches using multi-cameras or live broadcasts, mainly in Isère but also in Savoie, Haute-Savoie and Rhône “says Hugo Galatioto.
Matches broadcast exclusively on Facebook, for its 43,500 subscribers
Rugby, handball, football, volleyball, basketball, ice hockey, fencing… The media covers a wide spectrum of disciplines but with a real specificity: it does not follow” almost only amateur sport “, underlines its editor, who boasts” a unique model in France », on the bottom as much as on the form.
The other particularity, in fact, is that matches are broadcast exclusively on Facebook “. Why not have also opted for other platforms of diffusion ? Self” Facebook is the social network that offers the most flexibility on amateur sport “explains the journalist. ” On YouTube or Twitch, it would have been more difficult to reach the players’ companions, their families or their colleagues. »
” On all our LivesFacebook reported an intellectual property violation when we only used our own images and photos, and royalty-free music. »
Of course, ” being tied to only one social network is dangerous “, he concedes. ” But we have no choice. Until then, the facts had proved him right. Dauphinois Sport (an SAS and a holding company), whose income generates “ 100% from sponsors and private advertisers, without any public subsidy », now has a base of approximately 43,500 subscribers. And matches are often” seen 10 to 12,000 times “.
In addition to live broadcasts of matches, Le Sport dauphinois also broadcasts programs on local sport, filmed live on its TV set. © DSL
His Facebook page has thus needed, over the years, some 150,000 photos, 3 or 4,000 videos, 350 matches broadcast… But Hugo Galatioto now has “ the stress of losing everything “. It all started at the end of November, with alerts: “ We thought that the algorithm had been “heavy” for the Football World Cup. On all our LivesFacebook reported an intellectual property violation when we only used our own images and photos, and royalty-free music. »
A live fencing considered as “apology for violence”
Then, at the beginning of December, during a National 3 women’s handball match in Saint-Égrève, the media video was deleted by Facebook. All its live broadcasts then underwent the same sorting. All under pretexts that are often totally grotesque, like the broadcasting of a fencing competition, considered as ” apology for violence by the algorithm.
“Déblayage”, the media’s flagship weekly program on amateur rugby, cannot be broadcast either because of the blocking of the Facebook page. © DSL
Since then, the troubles follow one another. The journalist profile of Hugo Galatioto, with 4,200 contacts, fruit » a decade of networking “, has thus been purely and simply deleted. At the same time, the page of LSD initially received a ban for seven days, with a warning. ” Since yesterday evening [mercredi 14 décembre]we have the right to repost but we live with a sword of Damocles above the head because at the next Direct released, we risk permanent closure “laments the journalist.
“When I managed to have someone, I came across a ‘human robot'”
The latter, however, moved heaven and earth to try to contact Facebook – or more precisely its parent company Meta. ” But when I finally managed to get someone, I came across a “human robot”, presumably in a call center overseas. A person who answered me with ready-made sentences repeating to me the same thing as the algorithm “, he gets annoyed. ” It’s the only human connection I’ve had with Facebook. »
An almost Kafkaesque situation for the editor, who wonders about the reasons for the blockage. Name issue LSD which refers to the famous hallucinogenic drug? Contents ” too professional ” promote the social network to believe in a “theft” of rights? Hugo Galatioto may sweep away all the hypotheses, he still does not understand.
” If we redo a Direct and that Facebook closes our page, we lose eight years of work on our community. We would have to start from scratch, we would not recover. »
” We are a professional media and I am an embedded journalist, so I see it as a censorship of our work “, he says. But apart from the ethical question, it is above all the future of the Dauphinois sport which is at stake.” If we redo a Direct and that Facebook closes our page, we lose eight years of work on our community “, he is alarmed. ” We would have to start from scratch, we would not recover. »
Credit: Le Sport Dauphinois
Sport dauphinois now has six employees and a dozen freelancers (reporters and photographers) whose jobs are all threatened in the event of the permanent deletion of the media’s Facebook page. © DSL
The alternatives are indeed not legion. ” Last weekend, on a Federal 2 rugby match broadcast, which was hosted on the Voiron club page “says Hugo Galatioto. ” And this weekend creates, on another Facebook page. “Solutions which, however, only allow to reach a very small part of the public, according to him. ” We lose our strength ”, namely the subscribers of the history page, who do not avoid notifications.
” On December 10, we weren’t supposed to go out website, developed to retrieve all Facebook content live “added the sports journalist. An idea that the Isère media had to abandon – or postpone – in the face of this unexpected banishment.
“What happens to us today can happen to any media tomorrow”
As for the possible remedies, these are very limited. The editor challenged the deputies. ” There are two who replied to me, promising to send me back to Facebook, but it may take too long. “, he regrets. ” And if I go to court against a Gafa, I have at least one or two years of proceedings. ” He finally tried to alert the Commission of the identity card of the professional journalists (CCIJP) but did not have ” no feedback or support “.
However, time is running out Dauphinois Sport. ” If we don’t get there quickly, we won’t make it through the year. We have no financial reserves warns Hugo Galatioto. Before addressing a final piece of advice, in the form of a warning, to his fellow journalists: What happens to us today can happen to any media tomorrow. No one is safe from seeing all their work wiped out by an algorithm. »