French prosecutors
on Monday confirmed that an investigation has been launched into the cyber
bullying of Miss France pageant’s runner-up, April Benayoum, after she reported a
torrent of anti-Semitic social media messages targeting her Jewish origin, AFP
reported.

Benayoum, who
holds the title of Miss Provence and competed for the national crown on Saturday,
said that she received several hate messages after she revealed that her father
is of Israeli origin.

“I am deeply
shocked by the flood of anti-Semitic insults against Miss Provence. We will not
let this stand. Shame on the authors,” said Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

The investigation
will be carried on the charges of “racist insults” and
“instigation of race hatred.”

According to AFP, the remarks
consisted various anti race slurs, one of which read “Hitler forgot about
this one” and another “Don’t vote for a Jew.’ The statements drew
instant condemnation from politicians and associations.

“#MissFrance2021 is not an anti-Semitism contest.
All my support to April Benayoum #MissProvence target of anti-Semitic comments of incredible violence all evening after discussing his origins.

I send a report to the Prosecutor (article 40).” tweeted French politician, Marlene Schiappa.

Considering the
amount of hatred April’s identity garnered, The International League against Racism and
Anti-Semitism (Licra) said the messages had turned Twitter “into an
anti-Semitic cesspool” and called on internet users to report the
offending content with a view to launching a class action suit.

Miss France’s winner Amandine Petite also condemned the vilification of her colleague and called the
messages “inappropriate” and “extremely disappointing.”

April’s criticism
however does not mark the sudden wave of anti Semitic sentiments, in fact France,
which has the biggest Jewish population in Europe, has seen an increase in
anti-Semitic vandalism and hate speech in the past few years.

Addressing such
surging hate over the social media platforms, The EU’s internal market Commissioner,
Thierry Breton, said that Twitter and other social media platforms would have
to move quicker to remove hate speech under a new Digital Services Act proposed
for the bloc this month.

“What we’re
proposing is to confirm that platforms give themselves the means to respond
instantly to demands from the authorities when offenses like this occur,”
Breton told BFM television on Sunday in response to the Miss France messages
late Sunday.

As far as the statistics are concerned,  according to the interior ministry, in 2018 alone, the
number of anti-Jewish offences reported to police surged 74%.