Who is behind the “Extractor” group that forced Doctolib to clean up its platform? – Editing

Question by Letigre on August 25, 2022

Doctolib recently decided to suspend 17 accounts of naturopaths – some of whom have been on the platform for a long time – who claimed they were tutored by Erin Grosjean, a practitioner whose “treatment” included sexual touching of minors. If the company claims that it purges its base of the most questionable profiles on a regular basis, this particular example shows that its drift detector is far from being as sensitive as its users are entitled to hope. Above all, in the face of controversy, the company announced new measures. In this specific case, he turned his attention to these profiles after a series of messages were posted on Twitter by an account with 38,500 subscribers called “Extractor”.

disguised as “Collective information about the risks of certain false alternatives in terms of health and food” And the alert On sectarian deviations, it now brings together a solid core of five people, and dozens of scattered contributors. The profiles encountered in this hard core are highly heterogeneous, ranging from Clément, associate professor of biology, Antoine (1), a computer scientist, or Fiona (1) a doctor of biology specializing in ecology.

Reference to “juice making tools”

This initiative was born a few months before Covid, after the announcement of Thierry Casasnovas, an influential videographer (under the watchful eye of Myvilodes since 2014) who specifically promotes the idea that raw food can heal “all diseases” Including cancer. At the end of September 2019, Casasnovas announced his intention to establish a nursery and an elementary school where his principles could be taught, and “Where we won’t bother kids with vaccinations.”

“I have watched videos of Casasnovas shooting for a long time”Fiona explains. “There, with this elementary school project, I told myself it was time to sound the alarm. I wrote a letter to my deputy…but I told myself that more had to be done to get people to interact. On social networks, other accounts also expressed their indignation. Many of them communicate with each other through private messages. All of them have in mind countless notes by Casasnovas. “One of the first things we did was make videos of his statements, to try to show them irony, and publicly ridicule them,” Kleiman, a spokesperson for the group, explains. “But we quickly realized that these videos were only shared by people who were really interested in these issues of therapeutic drift, and that they only affected people who were already convinced, not at all potential victims.”

According to the members of the group, the first video that really caught the eye, was posted on the Internet in mid-April 2020, ‘A completely changed approach’ : “In this video, we’ve layered detail on how he built his miracle cure lie through his diet. There we touched on a central point of his speech, because he uses this story as a selling point, as purported evidence of the fact that his method works.” this video It attracts the attention of many journalists who contact the group to learn more about this topic. With the Covid crisis, Casasnovas’ already huge audience is growing, with nearly 500,000 subscribers on YouTube, and his participation in YouTube shows brings together rising figures of the most delirious plotters, such as Silvano Trotta, Jean-Jacques Crèvecoeur or Christian Tal Schaller. During 2021, the group’s meticulous work was cited in several press investigations about Casasnovas’ profitable business.

name selection “extractor” yields “Whether in the way we conduct our investigations, by extracting highly problematic comments or lies that are spread in videos, in messages on forums, and in email exchanges,” “But also the ambition that helps some people break out of the grip of these teachers.”. It’s also, in a more humorous way, a nod to “juice extracts” It was marketed by entrepreneur Casasnovas Thierry, which he promotes in his videos. “We are happy to tell that every time he says that word in his videos, he always thinks of us in passing…”

However, if Casasnovas ‘Indispensable to her fans’It is far from being the only target of a group that cares about both “Tips on using essential oils for pregnant women and infants Presented by Alleged Physician and Aromatherapist Nelly Grogan » (also daughter of Erin Grosjean), to various conspiratorial characters who position themselves on public health issues, or Their links to various disinformation networks.

Commitment against sectarian deviations

Clement is the only member of the group who was seduced, in mid-2010, by Casanovas’ letters. “At the time, I changed my diet to become vegetarian, but could not find health professionals who were open-minded or trained on these issues. I turned to the Internet where, at the time, reliable resources on these topics were not yet structured. Although I was studying science the living, except that I could not discover that his discourses skillfully mixed truth and falsehood. I managed to get out of it at the time of compilation, when I had enough knowledge to realize the horrors that were said, in some cures or on vaccines. I got out of it because if I could Being so naive, I wouldn’t have much trouble accepting that I was wrong, too. Antoine, who hails from an environmental activism and has long been interested in resources related to the development of critical thinking, explains for his part that he has participated “Because we’re really talking about something concrete here that affects people’s health”. It is worth noting that there are no health professionals “at the core of the group”and if, “naturally”And the “Physicians are regularly consulted regarding this question we ask ourselves, when we investigate it.”

“This kind of commitment has many features in common with those we see with various other groups born in recent years around science and health issues and sectarian deviations.”Paul Gilles-Escoret, a doctoral student in sociology who specializes in the issue of mobilization for vaccination explains. “Common points in the paths of the same groups – which are formed on the web, bring together individuals who care about passwords like critical thinking, rationality, etc., and whose members share a common culture and opportunities for exchange, because they gravitate around a few central accounts on social networks (what We might call it an “extended rational society”) with similarities also at the level of the personal or professional trajectories of these members: we have individuals who often develop in circles that give special importance to science and reasoning and who, for some, adhere to some of the ideas they deplore today. Like Vaxxeuses on vaccine issues, these groups use the Web, not only to distribute their products, but also to adjust the balance of power on the Web. Paul Gilles Escorette notes that, “If contacts can be made with emerging movements within related professions, such as NoFakeMed (A group of health professionals have been mobilized against insufficiently proven medical practices, editor’s note)There is virtually no alliance, in part because the motivations behind the military commitment differ, but also because these groups do not have the same methods of action.

Throw hours of misleading speeches at yourself

Within the extraction tool, everyone’s skills are put to good use. While some are very good at data recovery and archiving, others will use their professional skills to dissect studies hijacked by charlatans. Others, again, throw in their spare time several hours of speeches by informants investigating them. “I do this while cooking or while gardening”One of the group members entrusts us. “You must be a bit masochistic for sure, but you have to do well with this watch.”

Ironically, the extract touched by Grosjean’s advocates reached the eyes of the extractor “Quite by chance”, Clement notes. The netizen who asked Doctolib about the possibility of scheduling an appointment there with naturopaths went to YouTube later in the day. The sequence was in his automatic recommendations (which also question the role of this type of channel in spreading these ideas). We ourselves, who listened to Dozens of hours of Grosjean, we totally lost it.

“Videos of these charlatans, we’ve seen thousands, and very dangerous statements, putting lives at risk, and we’ve exposed a great many for nearly three years. With regards to Erin Grosjean, it had to be a matter of minor sexual touching for you to interact. But we’ve already We have referred several times, over the course of three years, to his very serious statements about curing cancer, feeding children or HIV, without eliciting any media reaction — when we talk about endangering the lives of others.” that “Doctolib or many journalists’ indignation threshold” In the face of therapeutic abuse “Either sexual touching of the palace” Developed “An obvious question about the collective awareness of the other risks that countless practitioners pose to people’s health.”

Unfortunately for that, “For a few figures on a topic we will have little impact, there are hundreds of practitioners who do things or make speeches that may be more dangerous to the people who come in for their advice. Who controls this? Why isn’t there a site to report this with real results?” “

Despite his role in the controversy over the possibility of scheduling an appointment with “Real charlatans” via Doctolib, Collective “You’re not really proud of it, because we find it somewhat disconcerting. We don’t like it at all that it is up to us, as volunteer citizens, to take on this responsibility, given the risks involved – we’re talking about 500,000 people affected by sectarian perversions. We would like that to be done. by them (Doctolib) internally by their means. Or are there independent structures, again by real means, that can ensure the work of monitoring and alerting. The associations that fight sectarian perversions had a much larger following in the eighties and especially the nineties, especially at the time of the suicides in the Order of the Solar Temple Unfortunately, many of the volunteers are now of a certain age and may not have necessarily taken on the role of the Internet – whether it is about the new forms of sectarian perversions that this has brought about, but also the tool of alert and mediation that constitutes. The Miviludes scandal has been completely exposedwith no means to do what you ought to be doing on these subjects…and thus these groups of anonymous citizens, whether it’s us or other seniors like Chanology France (more focused on groups formed like the Church of Scientology, editor’s note), who take charge “. Finally: “The example of Doctolib’s reaction to our reporting illustrates the fact that things can change, but also that all those who should have been dealing with these issues for years just don’t exist, or don’t have the levers to achieve the results they should.”

(1) These first names are pseudonyms used by group members.