About

The 2016 French Labor Code Reform (known in French as Loi Travail) refers to un ungoing event in France involving the government trying to pass a new draft bill meant to reform the French Labor Code. Online, it triggered a huge backlash on social media, leading to a number of campaigns aimed at opposing it as well as the launch of a petition, backed up by Twitter "hashtags"::https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hashtag which have gained massive traction due to several Youtube celebrities showing their support for the movement.

Context

Through the end of 2015, a commission was hired by the French government to evaluate the current Labor Code and find points that could be changed, improved or removed. They issued their reports in late January 2016, leading to the official announcement of a major Labor Code reform under the name Loi du Travail ("Work Law") and Loi El Khomri ("El Khomri Law"), coming from France current Work Minister Myriam El Khomri.
In early February 2016, the bill was leaked to the internet and the mainstream media which published several articles about the upcoming law set to be voted on March 9th^[1].

On February 19th, 2016, Feminist activist Caroline DE HAAS launched a petition on Change.org, directed at the Ministry of Work, in which she listed what she perceived as several flaws in the law that would result in workplace conditions, firing and wage abuse by employers^[2], calling for protests and opposition against it.
In a little more than a week, the petition gained more than 700 000 signatures.

Spread

The petition page also links to a single-serving site presenting potential abuses that would be made legal by the law^[3].
On Twitter, the reform was heavily criticized under the hashtag #loitravail^[4] which was reported on by various new outlets.

Bonjour Tristesse's rant and Youtube description change

On February 19th, 2016, popular French Youtuber "Bonjour Tristesse" (literally "Hello Sadness", a reference to a well known French novel) uploaded a video where he critized the reform (shown below). The description of the video also provided the link to the single-serving site loitravail.lol.

On February 22th in the evening, the description of the same video appeared as the default description of Youtube in French Google results ^[6]. The reason why the description was updated has been widely discussed, Bonjour Tristesse himself supposing on his Twitter feed that it was the doing of an hacktivist. News outlets speculated that the change might have been the result of Google Bombing.

Eventually, Google stated to French journal LeMonde that the change of description was due to an algorithm which replaced from time to time the default description with the description of a currently popular video. By February 23th, the description went back to the default one. By the end of February, Bonjour Tristesse's video gained more than 200 000 views.

#OnVautMieuxQueÇa

On February 24th, several French Youtubers united to make a video titled "On vaut mieux que ça", French for We are better than this (shown below). In it, they exposed their viewpoints on the current situation and they ask for people to oppose the law. The video has gained over 100 000 views in the first two days of its release.

The hashtag #OnVautMieuxQueÇa^[5] began trending on Twitter, including people sharing their actual experience with workplace injustice and abuse. Again, this movement was reported on by numerous news outlets. In addition to their common work, some of the Youtubers involved in the video uploaded additionnal videos in which they expanded their viewpoints, most notably Le Fil d'Actu (February 25th, shown below, left) and Dany Caligula (February 26th, shown below, right).

On February 26th, French online magazine Arrêt sur images, which covers the evolution of media in France, provided a new emission for their followers which discussed the reform, the #OnVautMieuxQueCa campaign and the impact of Youtubers on the French political scene. A preview of the emission can be seen on Youtube.

Parodies

The reform also spawned a few parodies online which gained attention in French media ^[7]. On February 20th, Youtuber Ambroise Lesage uploaded a montage featuring scenes from Attack On Titan (shown below), with the titans becoming an allegory of the new Work Law. Like Bonjour Tristesse's video, the description also provided a link to loitravail.lol and invited viewers to sign the petition.

Response from the government

[WIP]

External References