“How much do you hit my pretty face?” This first trend on Threads is plaguing the internet

It’s enough to leave you speechless, stunned, or to put it mildly…stunned. On December 14, a new social network, Threads, was created in Europe, the last of Mark Zuckerberg and his Meta group (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), aiming to be a direct competitor to Elon Musk. For just over two weeks, users have been sharing all kinds of messages on the platform, using short texts of up to 500 characters.

Some do not hesitate to redouble their efforts to make their network known and bring together a new community. “I subscribe to everyone who likes this post,” we can modestly read under certain posts. But other strategies for achieving this remain more confusing. One of them, which is currently causing a stir among users, consists of taking a photo of your face with this caption: “How much do you hit my pretty face?” Or some variations: “You slap me with 10,000 euros”, “You slap me with 5 euros”, “How much do you slap me?”

There’s no shortage of comments under these quirky suggestions, which come from young women in their 20s and 30s. Willingness to create controversy, dark humor, first or second degree? Many Internet users ask the question, although these posts collect hundreds of “likes” and the same number of replies. Most of them are aggressive with calls for violence. “Just for your explosive tendency, you deserve to eat the best fire tornado in history,” we can read under these posts. Or email “I put you and your whole family in blood for 1 cent.”

Sorry for domestic violence

Meanwhile, on November 16, 2023, figures from the Ministry of the Interior showed a 15 percent increase in domestic violence in France in 2022 compared to the previous year. “Every two days a woman is murdered in France and you find a way to open your filthy mouths for likes, it’s ridiculous,” said a social media user. And another added: “Violence against women is so funny haha ​​(they do it every day for free. Bullshit).

Actress and feminist activist Andrea Besconde also responded to the controversy in one of the posts, which was forwarded by a subscriber. “This trend…something escapes me…” he laments. The “Understanding Feminism” blog also protested against these messages. “More than 130 women have been killed by men because of their gender, most after years of domestic violence, complaints were ignored,” it says. Note that according to another report last September, still by the Home Office, 118 women died at the hands of their husbands or ex-husbands in 2022, just four fewer femicides than in 2021.