Two twenty-year-old men have been given a six-month jail sentence for using Facebook to invite hundreds of people to a party and smashing up an empty house in the south of France.

"/> Two twenty-year-old men have been given a six-month jail sentence for using Facebook to invite hundreds of people to a party and smashing up an empty house in the south of France.

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Teens trash villa in huge ‘Facebook party’

Two twenty-year-old men have been given a six-month jail sentence for using Facebook to invite hundreds of people to a party and smashing up an empty house in the south of France.

Published: 27 June 2012 09:13 CEST

It started off with a simple invitation on Facebook. Two young men Allan Brooks and Alexandre Fleury planned to throw a massive party in the Var region, Le Figaro reports.

“There’s no limit. Come with alcohol. Premises can welcome 1,200 people,” they announced online. Brooks and Fleury were inspired by the US film Project X, which tells the story of three teenagers who throw the biggest party ever.  

The two men chose an unoccupied house in the village Roquebrune-sur-Argens to host their party on May 19.

But they quickly lost control: 600 youths turned up for the event and smashed up the villa, breaking windows, throwing furniture and ripping out the toilets. Some had travelled from as far as Marseille, Lyon and even Paris to take part in the event.

“It was horrible, incredible, they smashed everything,” says Hanneke Sprong, the owner of the house in an interview with Le Figaro. The damage is estimated at €80,000.

On Monday, a court condemned the two youths to serve six months in jail and pay a €20,000-fine.

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FACEBOOK

Facebook deletes virus conspiracy accounts in Germany

Facebook says it has deleted the accounts, pages and groups linked to virus conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers in Germany who are vocal opponents of government restrictions to control the coronavirus pandemic.

Published: 17 September 2021 09:06 CEST
Updated: 17 September 2021 15:52 CEST
Facebook deletes virus conspiracy accounts in Germany
An anti-vaccination and anti-Covid demo in Berlin on August 28th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christophe Gateau

With just 10 days to go before Germany’s parliamentary elections – where the handling of the pandemic by Angela Merkel’s goverment will come under scrutiny – Facebook said it had “removed a network of Facebook and Instagram accounts” linked to the so-called “Querdenker” or Lateral Thinker movement.

The pages posted “harmful health misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence”, the social media giant said in a statement.

It said that the people behind the pages “used authentic and duplicate accounts to post and amplify violating content, primarily focused on promoting the conspiracy that the German government’s Covid-19 restrictions are part of a larger plan to strip citizens of their freedoms and basic rights.”

The “Querdenker” movement, which is already under surveillance by Germany’s intelligence services, likes to portray itself as the mouthpiece of opponents
of the government’s coronavirus restrictions, organising rallies around the country that have drawn crowds of several thousands.

READ ALSO: Germany’s spy agency to monitor ‘Querdenker’ Covid sceptics

It loosely groups together activists from both the far-right and far-left of the political spectrum, conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers. And some of their rallies have descended into violence.

Social media platforms regularly face accusations that they help propagate misinformation and disinformation, particularly with regard to the pandemic and vaccines.

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