Je Suis Charlie

About

"Je suis Charlie" (English: "I am Charlie" and "I follow Charlie") is a slogan for the movement in support of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in which 12 people, including many staff cartoonists, were killed at the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper in January 2015. The statement identifies the speaker with those who were killed at the Charlie Hebdo shooting, and by extension for freedom of speech and resistance to armed threats. Some journalists embraced the expression as a rallying cry for the freedom of self-expression. As a result, demonstrations were launched in France and around the world in favor of the movement, and to protest against barbaric acts and terrorism on a larger scale.

Origin

On January 7th 2015, two armed men entered the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris and opened fire, killing 12 people inside and near the building. As French news stations drew attention to the tragic event, Joachim Rocin, the art director and music journalist for Stylist magazine, about a little over 1 hour after the incident, posted a picture on Twitter of a black background with the three white and grey words Je suis Charlie^[1], mimicking Charlie Hebdo's printing style (shown below).

Spread

Around the same time this image appeared, the catchphrase became adopted as a hashtag on Twitter^[2]. It was mainly used as an act of sympathy towards families of the victims. However, as many followers came in and it was reused more than 610,000 times on twitter before the end of the day, the mainstream media began highlighting the hashtag in various discussions about freedom of speech and freedom of press after the attack^[3]. The official Charlie Hebdo website reposted it on its twitter account as well.
A Facebook page was launched later that day^[4], escalating to more than 260 000 likes in the first two days of its creation and inviting everyone to change their Facebook avatars to the black picture.
On January 9th, some internet retailing sites began selling products featuring the phrase, such as T-shirts, mugs, ect.. to the dismay and shock of many netizens^[11].

Demonstrations

On the afternoon and night of January 7th, calls for peaceful demonstrations all around France were made via the hashtag and the Facebook page in order to pay tribute to the victims^[5]. The day after, on January 8th, these calls were extended throughout the globe and many foreign countries join in to show their support.^[6] The demonstrations lasted up to two weeks afterward.

Photographs from around the world

Dozens of photographs were curated from various news agencies and amateur photographers (shown below).

Homage from Google

Google paid tribute to the victims by creating a doodle displaying a black ribbon on the front of its search homepage^[6] (shown below). On January 8th, the ribbon was replaced with the black picture "Je suis Charlie".

#JesuisPolicier and #JesuisAhmed

In addition to the first hashtag, another, #JeSuisPolicier (from Je Suis Policier, meaning I am a Police Officer in English) was launched to pay tribute to two police officers who were killed in cold blood while on duty during the massacre, as well as the woman police officer who died after the January 8th shooting in Montrouge^[7].
#JeSuisAhmed^[8] is also a hashtag related to one of the deceased police officers, Ahmed Mérabet who was a French Muslim of Algerian origin, as a counterpoint against Muslim-bashing messages online following the attack as well as acts of violence in real life against the Muslim community.

Albert Uderzo's Endorsement

From the many celebrities who took pictures of themselves with the phrase or reused it, one stood out. On January 8th, famous retired cartoonist Albert Uderzo, creator of Asterix, came out of his retirement to draw a tribute picture in response to the attack^[15] (shown below).

Criticism

In reaction towards Charlie Hebdo's image as a satirical weekly who was prone on doing caricatures of every political and social group, the hashtag #JeNeSuisPasCharlie^[9] (I Am Not Charlie) was launched for people who wanted to pay tribute to the victims while also condemning perceived racist, islamophobic, homophobic, sexist and/or transphobic characteristics associated with the magazine^[10]. These perceptions have also been heavily discussed on blogs such as Tumblr ^[14].

Notable Images

Related Hashtags

#jesuiskouachi and #jesuiscoulibaly

A counter hashtag began trending on twitter as early as January 10th with #JeSuisKouachi (I Am Kouachi) and #JeSuisCoulibaly (I Am Coulibaly). Taken after the name of the terrorists involved in the attacks in France, they serve as an apology of terrorism and their actions^[12] and are usually made by twitter accounts defending extremist views on Islam.

#jesuischarlesmartel

After the attack, other people who wanted to express an anti-Muslims sentiment on social networking sites parodied #JeSuisCharlie into #JeSuisCharlesMartel^[13] (I Am Charles Martel) in reference to Charles Martel, also known as Charles The Hammer, a French military leader who allegedly prevented a Muslim invasion of Europe by winning the Battle of Poitiers in 732.

#jesuisnico

Je Suis Nico (I Am Nico) is a hahtag and exploitable image of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy inviting himself to the front of the January 11th March in Paris, France. It became a subject of mockery on the French internet as he was parodied into several photographs from various movies, tv shows and historical events.
More information can be found in the entry for Je Suis Nico.

#jesuisnigeria

The same week the Charlie Hebdo shooting happened, reports were made of allegedly over 2 000 people killed in Nigeria to the hand of Boko Haram and his Islamist group^[16]. In the wake of this event that didn't catch as much attention as the Paris attack and following the "Je Suis Charlie" slogan, a new trending hashtag began to appear on twitter with #JeSuisNigeria^[17] (I Am Nigeria), coupled with #StopBokoHaram, in order to show support for the Nigerian victims^[18] and draw attention to the massacre.

Search Interest

External References