French politicians turn to Twitch to brush up their comms

PARIS — Frightened of being denied their traditional rallies and handshakes in market squares due to COVID-19 restrictions, French politicians are turning to social networks such as Twitch, Instagram, and Clubhouse to get their message out.

Twitch in particular, despite being better known as a platform for livestreaming video games, has seen a rush of attention.

In the past few weeks alone, former President François Hollande, government spokesperson Gabriel Attal and even Prime Minister Jean Castex have turned to the platform for live chats, hoping to reach a new audience.

A comment from Hollande on his biggest regret from his time as president of France — “not having run for re-election” — went viral and fueled speculation about his potential desire to return to politics. He was hosted on the personal channel of — and in the home of — journalist Samuel Étienne, a long-time TV host at national public broadcaster France Télévisions turned Twitch star.

Étienne launched his channel in December with the goal of making a discussion of press highlights more interactive, and Hollande was his first interview guest.

“It’s a wonderful space of liberty, there is a wonderful interactivity, it’s a pure exercise in direct democracy,” Étienne said.

Hollande’s interview on the first edition of the show, a two-and-a-half-hour session answering chat questions from online participants, has racked up a total of over 730,000 views.

The setup appeared to suit Hollande’s style, which is often chatty, and went beyond confessions that may or may not hint at political calculations into frank and even humorous topics. The event was seen as breaking fairly new ground for online interaction between politicians and voters.  

“We weren’t far from the standup scene in Los Angeles,” said Gaspard Gantzer, a former PR adviser to Hollande at the Élysée.

But not everyone succeeds.

Just six days after Hollande, Castex was also hosted by Étienne in a session which struggled to create the same buzz, even if it followed the same format.

Masked, whereas Hollande had flouted some coronavirus recommendations, Castex faced a tougher crowd in the chat, and struggled to hit the occasional softball such as whether France had been cheated in a recent rugby match against England. Although the event had received a lot of attention in the buildup, Castex fell just short of Hollande’s peak at almost 95,000 live viewers.

Not for everyone 

With the flurry of politicians arriving, there has been some debate among Twitch users over how welcome the newcomers are on the platform. Traditionally, the livestream platform owned by Amazon has been a stronghold of video-game communities.

“Twitch is a social network. Those who think it’s just a platform where you film yourself and speak don’t understand, it’s a space of direct exchange,” said Denis Masséglia, an MP from Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party who runs a Twitch channel and recently invited Digital Minister Cédric O to a livestream.

Masséglia, a vintage game console repairman in his spare time, chairs the National Assembly’s study group on video games, and hopes to build bridges between the LREM majority and the online community. “You need to come as you are, you can’t cheat,” he advised.

Government spokesperson Attal has also led an effort to rejuvenate governmental communications. The 32-year-old has established a strong presence on Instagram, where he started holding live Q&As in October, and recently took his outreach to the next level.

In February, Attal launched his own Twitch show called “#NoFilter,” intended to become a monthly conversation to explain government action. For his first show, the guests were mostly social media stars, or “influencers,” and the tone was informal, with the familiar tu (you) widely used.

Set in a gold-plated but darkly-lit room of the Élysée Palace, the mood contrasted sharply with the conviviality of Étienne’s show.

“The panel’s composition may have been a mistake,” said Malek Délégué, a TV talk-show pundit and the only guest on Attal’s stream who was not an “influencer.” He regretted the lack of student representatives around the table, for what was billed as a youth-themed chat. “There should have been more interaction,” he added, referring to the fact that most questions came from the guests rather than viewers in the chat.

Speak truth or fail

“Political speech alone does not have much success,” said Étienne, “However, if the promise to viewers is that a politician will speak, but accompanied by a journalist who can correct or rebound on what he says, we are in a journalistic exercise. And I speak of journalists, but the chat plays the same role.”

“I have a rule,” Masséglia said. “We are not here to make speeches or present our work, but to exchange directly with users, so we take all questions.”

“There’s a balance to find both with the people we want to invite and the interaction,” said Thien-Anh Dang-Vu, a media adviser to Attal. The spokesperson’s team is looking to make their show more interactive to avoid appearing to select questions, while giving space to future guests.

With regional elections scheduled for June, and the 2022 presidential election already looming, some see the exploration of new digital spaces in an electoral context. “I think the next campaigns will be played on these social networks,” said Gantzer. “The press will still play its prescriptive and analytical role but the audience will be digital.”

Meanwhile, Macron has made regular appearances in youth-oriented online spaces, although he rarely creates content for social media himself (except when filming himself with his phone while sick with COVID-19, to visually stress his respect for isolation rules).  

In December, the president gave a two-and-a-half-hour interview to Brut, a video-based online outlet, answering viewer questions in the same way as is done on Twitch. More recently, he challenged two popular YouTubers to make a 10 million views video on social distancing rules (“I’d recommend social distancing from the video”, said Hollande on Twitch).

Ten years after the 2012 election, which saw French politicians rush onto Facebook and Twitter, the perpetual quest for voters is moving to new fields. As one of Attal’s advisers put it, describing the changing digital landscape, “There is no one left to convince on Twitter.”

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