Cyberharassment
In plain terms
Hostile messages, comments, or posts, repeated, coming from one or several people, that end up taking over your daily life. It isn't a matter of sensitivity: repetition is precisely what constitutes the offense.
Definition
Cyberharassment is the repetition of hostile remarks or behavior directed at a person through electronic communications, resulting in a deterioration of their living conditions.
How it works
What characterizes cyberharassment isn't the severity of any single message but the accumulation: each element, taken alone, can seem minor, which makes the situation hard to get recognized at first. Three traits make it worse than offline harassment. It has no hours: the phone follows the person everywhere, including at home. It leaves public, lasting traces, visible to friends, family, and future employers. And it can be carried out by several people acting separately, each of them thinking they only wrote one message. Under French law, the repetition constitutes the offense, including when it results from statements made by different individuals.
Warning signs
- Repeated hostile messages or comments, even low-intensity ones
- Creation of dedicated accounts to contact you after being blocked
- Content about you shared out of its original context
- Recruiting others to relay or amplify the harassment
- Avoiding online spaces where you used to be present
- Effects on sleep, work, or schooling
How to verify
Build a chronological record: timestamped screenshots, account identifiers, post addresses. That's what turns a feeling into a case file. Don't reply to try to get an admission: it feeds the thread and provides material that can be used against you.
What to do
Preserve the evidence before blocking, then block and report on each platform. Temporarily restrict the visibility of your accounts rather than deleting them: deletion makes the evidence disappear too. Talk about it — to someone close to you, to your school, to your employer, to the dedicated online harassment helpline (3018 in France).
If it already happened
File a police report with the record you've built: cyberharassment is a criminal offense and the report can target multiple perpetrators. Get support from a victim support association, which knows the process and the timelines. If content needs to be taken down, reporting to the platform is faster than the judicial route, and both can be pursued in parallel.
Frequently asked questions
- Each message on its own seems harmless. Is that enough?
- Yes, and that is in fact the definition of the offense: it rests on repetition, not on the severity of any one message. That's why a complete chronological record is more valuable than a screenshot of the worst message.
- The perpetrators are numerous and anonymous. Is a police report worth it?
- Yes. French law covers the case where repetition results from several people acting separately, and online anonymity isn't truly anonymous: platforms can be legally required to identify an account as part of a case.
- Should I delete my accounts?
- Restricting visibility is preferable to deletion, which erases the evidence and can make the person feel driven out of their own spaces. Stepping back, if chosen, should be temporary and your own decision.
Related attacks
Official sources
Also known as: online harassment, digital harassment, online bullying.
This article is part of the Blackmail, harassment and personal harm family. Last updated: 2026-09-02.