Petition Claiming over a Million Signatures Against Immigration Faces Verification Concerns
PARIS – A petition spearheaded by French politician Philippe de โขVilliers, aiming to gather support againstโค immigration, claims to have surpassed one million signatures. However, an investigation by CheckNews reveals meaningful vulnerabilities in the petition’s verification process, raising questions about the authenticity of the support.
The referendum-immigration.com site, managed by Philippe de Villiers with data processing handled at offices of Lagardรจre News (Europe 1, JDD) located at 2 rueโ des Cรฉvennes, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, relies on a basic CAPTCHA test for sign-up. CheckNews found the systemโ allows for theโค submission of fictitious names -โ including “Test Test,” “Philippe de Voilier,” and “Pierre Paul Jacques” – paired with fabricated or existing email addresses. Each submission was met with a “Thank you forโ signing the petition!” message, increasing the signatory count without any โขidentity verification. No confirmation emails โคwhere received โขby CheckNews using personal email addresses.
The only apparent safeguard is a block on duplicate email addresses, triggeringโ a “You have already signed!” message. This feature, though, allows users to determine if a specific email address โฃhasโ already been used to sign the petition.CheckNews discovered the email address associated with National assembly deputy Laurent Wauquiez had already been registered,perhaps byโค Wauquiez himself or another party.This โraises the possibility of individuals signing up othersโข without their knowledge or consent, including public figures like Marine Le Pen.
Furthermore,the petition interface includes optional checkboxes allowing signatories to โฃshare their email addresses with Philippe de โฃVilliers and Lagardรจre Mรฉdia News (owned by the Bollorรฉ group). CheckNews confirmed signatures are accepted even without checking โthese boxes.
Fayard editions, contacted regarding โpotential โขpromotional use of the petition dataโ for an upcoming book by de Villiers, stated they are not in โขchargeโ of the initiative but did not clarify whether the author intends to leverage the petition for โbook promotion.
Requests for commentโ from Philippe de Villiers’sโฃ assistant, โฃthe petition’s designated โemail address (petitionvilliers@gmail.com), โLagardรจre group press services, and JDD director of publication Geoffroy Lejeune regarding signatory verification and data usage went unanswered.