Authentication against “coarse fakes”. The investigative media Mediapart published on Thursday, October 1, authentication elements, via Facebook and a bailiff, of anti-Semitic messages dating from 2013 attributed to the president of the RN Jordan Bardella, of which the latter again denied being the author.
The online newspaper publishes screenshots of the anti-Semitic and conspiratorial messages that Jordan Bardella allegedly sent to another person on the Messenger platform in 2013. Mediapart, however, was not satisfied with screenshots, which could easily be falsified: the media consulted several emails, confirmed by the interlocutors of the president of the RN, and Messenger conversations of Jordan Bardella. For his part, the president of the RN denounces "pseudo-evidence" and announces a complaint for forgery and use of forgery.
For this, the interlocutor of the president of the National Rally asked Meta, parent company of Facebook, to download this conversation on Messenger, the extraction of which was authenticated by a bailiff, again according to Mediapart. According to the newspaper, the conversations were transmitted by two different sources, unrelated to each other, having evolved in Jordan Bardella's entourage at the time.
How does it work?
Indeed, any user of platforms like Meta has the possibility of requesting a history of their exchanges, according to European Union rules. But on a few conditions, and in particular, the first: it can only be one's own messages. The tool, accessible to all users of Meta's social networks (Facebook, Messenger, Instagram or Threads) is called "Upload your information". It can be found in the “Accounts” area, in the “Your information and authorizations” section. This is also the only official mechanism for accessing message data: it arises from the right of access provided for by the GDPR, which requires the platform to provide a copy of everything it holds about the user.
Conveniently, once connected to Facebook, you must click on the profile photo, then “Settings and confidentiality”, then “Settings”. The “accounts area” appears at the top or in the left menu. On Messenger, it is accessible from the “Settings” menu. You must then select "Download your information" (sometimes titled "Export your information"), then some information must be specified: the contact address, the information sought, the period, the export format and the quality of the multimedia content.
In the case of old conversations, it is better to choose "Specific types of information" rather than a complete copy, then check "Messages": the file will be much lighter and will also arrive faster.
Note that the HTML format can be read directly in a browser, while the more technical JSON format better preserves certain raw data, such as the timestamp or certain identifiers.
Who can ask what?
Another prerequisite: you must have access to the email address associated with the account or its password, Meta specifies on its official website. Be careful, therefore: no one can request messages from a third party. The export only concerns your account, and only the conversations in which you have participated. This is why, in this case, the approach was taken through Jordan Bardella's contact.
We tested the method: it only takes a few hours to obtain it for our selected period, namely our Messenger messages for the year 2013. Once the export is ready, we have four days to download it, again according to Meta's online help.
However, deleted messages pose a problem: the tool only restores what is still stored on the account. Specialized media, for example, highlight the risk of messages being lost in conversations when both parties have, for example, deleted their copy.
Encryption is also a game-changer for recent exchanges. Since the end of 2023, Meta has enabled end-to-end encryption for all messages and calls between two people. The history of these discussions now goes through “secure storage” which can be retrieved using a PIN code or a code generated by the application. For deleted secret conversations, Meta therefore does not have a readable copy on its servers.
Can we modify messages?
First, the exported file is HTML or JSON on the user's computer: such a file can technically be modified. In this case, and this is sometimes what the RN argues, is that its probative value is therefore mainly due to the conditions of extraction. This is probably the role of the bailiff's report mandated by Mediapart in this matter: to certify that the data was downloaded directly from the account, without intervention. The exact terms of this observation will undoubtedly be at the heart of the legal procedure. If such a file is modified, the date and time are then modified. It then displays a date and time different from all the other files, because they have exactly the same timestamp, namely the extraction time. And if there are a lot of Messenger conversations, then you would have to change the date and time of all the files at the same time, which can be difficult when you have several dozen conversations to modify at the same time, during the same minute.
Second question: could someone have impersonated Jordan Bardella, knowing all the details of his life, even though he was unknown to the general public at the time? Some RN executives warn of the possible risks of identity theft.
Finally, what would make Mediapart's documents incontestable, or, on the contrary, completely invalidate them, would be for the courts to request the IP address of the Messenger account from Meta. A journalist can't do it. Or, more simply, that Jordan Bardella himself gives access to his Messenger conversations from the time. For the moment, it doesn't seem to be planned.
