The method of Fouad Ahidar – a former Vooruit MP who positioned his movement as an identity lobby – is artisanal, but effective. For years, he has distributed his business card en masse in markets, inviting passers-by to send him an SMS. This approach allowed him to build an impressive database of telephone numbers, estimated at several tens of thousands. In just a few sends, he can then activate these contacts and flood his subscribers with messages and videos via groups and mailing lists on WhatsApp.
A WhatsApp visual, labeled Team Ahidar and sent on September 26, erroneously claims that Vooruit plans to eliminate the Islamic religion course in Flemish education. ©PM
Fouad Ahidar spends long hours, phone in hand, personally responding to messages and posting videos on TikTok. Its recurring themes: support for Palestine, opposition to the Good Move mobility plan, defense of the veil in public administrations and support for ritual slaughter. In a video, he claims that, according to neurologists, slaughter without stunning is “the quickest and least painful method.”
Reda Chahidi, head of digital communications for Team Ahidar, explains that “the strategy revolves around Fouad Ahidar, who has a strong character and strong opinions. We simply position ourselves on strong themes, by answering the questions that we put us on the networks, for example, people wanted to know our position on the scarf, and we gave it.”
The videos are optimized for social media with specific marketing techniques, such as the importance of the first ten seconds to capture attention. “Then,” continues Reda Chahidi, “we distribute the content via WhatsApp channels. We ask people to give us a little help, to share or comment, which boosts the algorithm.”
At the Brussels PS, two parallel regional campaigns
The Brussels socialists adopted a similar strategy. During the regional campaign, their president, Ahmed Laaouej, increased the number of WhatsApp messages, often focused on the situation in Gaza. These were sent to a restricted circle of contacts who then redistributed them in their respective neighborhoods, thus reinforcing the virality of the content. Although he led a more traditional and high-profile electoral campaign, the leader of the Brussels PS also mobilized local groups via WhatsApp distribution lists.
A montage targeting Ecolo, as it circulated on WhatsApp channels during the regional campaign. ©PM
The Brussels PS therefore led a campaign on two levels. On one side, a media facade with traditional electoral methods, and on the other, a multitude of small local units which have deployed more informal digital strategies. These units, often active on international issues such as Gaza, have managed to mobilize entire communities via WhatsApp, addressing issues that resonate strongly with voters. On June 9, the day of the election, Ahmed Laaouej sent his contacts an email calling on them to mobilize “against the ban on slaughter without stunning” and to defend the freedom “to exercise one’s religion without hindrance “. This message was a response to Fouad Ahidar’s attacks, some socialists tell us. On June 22, two socialist municipal councilors from Molenbeek, Akki Yassine and Abdellah Achaoui, for example, published a video on Facebook thanking a local mosque for its support during the electoral campaign.
Off the radar, the MR and Western Sahara
Very little publicized subjects have paradoxically been central in certain communities. Several local figures from the PS and the MR engaged in a race to and fro on the question of support for Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. An anonymous visual in Arabic, recalling the MR’s position in favor of the Moroccan Sahara, circulated widely on WhatsApp in May. The PS, for its part, was attacked by fake news, particularly on Evras, the education course for relational, emotional and sexual life. Fouad Ahidar estimated on Tik Tok that this posed “big problems”, citing the example of a professor who had changed sex and who arrived wearing a miniskirt.
The methods are sometimes surprising. An MR candidate in Anderlecht thus received a WhatsApp message encouraging him to vote for Ali Husnain, a candidate from Team Ahidar, accompanied by promotional offers for trips to Lahore and Mecca. We thus see the growing importance of WhatsApp as an electoral campaign tool. “The underground electoral campaigns of Team Fouad Ahidar, but also of Ahmed Laaouej, were quite effective. But for the municipal elections, we are more on micro-targeting”, analyzes Nicolas Baygaert, specialist in political communication (Ihecs , ULB and Sciences Po Paris). “The municipal campaign is very little visible and reaches a very limited audience, as has always been done. However, the communication channels now available (WhatsApp and Telegram) make it possible to reach without too much effort an electorate who can play the role of amplifier by relaying messages. The idea is to create a monitoring network, already strongly activated during the regional elections, and which can resume service at the municipal level.”
A message sent via WhatsApp by a supporter of the Ahidar list, calling for support for candidate Ali Husnain, includes a promotional offer for a trip to Mecca. ©PM
At the PS, industrial use of WhatsApp
In the Socialist Party, the use of WhatsApp has become an organized and methodical practice. A favorable wind sent us an internal PS document, a 54-page guide, detailing how to use social networks for the municipal campaign. It explains in particular how to create mailing lists and segment voters based on criteria such as location or interests. The PS, via its “Digital Factory”, even organizes training for its candidates on the use of these tools.
A 54-page PDF document sent by the PS office to the various local sections of the party, which explains in particular how to use WhatsApp. ©PM
In this underground campaign, the question of data protection is central. The non-profit organization Human Smile, a humanitarian organization, for example, sent emails calling to vote for Ahmed Laaouej to people who had initially registered to support a fundraiser for Gaza. This reuse of data for political purposes could constitute an infringement of the GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation, as certain donors have not given their explicit consent to receive this type of communication.
This message sent by the non-profit organization Human Smile, which distributes aid to victims of Gaza, called during the regional campaign to vote for Ahmed Laaouej. ©PM
Another problematic case: the day before the election, Saturday June 8, after 10 p.m., thousands of Brussels residents received SMS asking them to vote for Lydia Muytebele and other socialist candidates. However, according to the law, political communications are prohibited after this time, and voters had not given their consent for their data to be used for this purpose. A complaint for computer fraud was filed by the organization Transparencia, and a legal investigation is underway.
Ethnic targeting
Ethnic, or at least community, targeting remains a common practice in some campaigns. In Molenbeek, voters received letters from Amet Gjanaj, PS alderman, written in Albanian. When contacted, the latter assured “that he had only sent around ten letters, and only to people who had requested it beforehand.” The explanation may be perplexing. Other voters of Turkish origin were sent letters directly in their native language. Simon R. tells us this other fact: “I live in Schaerbeek with my partner, who has a Moroccan-sounding name. He received a letter from the PS asking him to vote for Jamal Ikazban, Hasan Koyuncu, Ahmed Laaouej and Ridouane Chahid. I live at the same address, but I haven’t received anything.”
A letter sent by Amet Gjanaj (PS), alderman in Molenbeek, explains to the recipients of the message how to vote for him. ©PM
These practices raise questions about how this personal information is obtained and used. However, by simply reading the names in the voters’ register (see text below), it is possible to deduce their origin. “Campaign teams can, with time and method, target people to contact on the basis of their name,” confirms a socialist tenor. However, within the Brussels PS, some officials temper this approach, affirming that community profiling is a twilight practice. From now on, it is on Tik Tok and WhatsApp that the parties are trying to make a difference.
This montage targeting MR candidates from diverse backgrounds circulated on WhatsApp message chains during the regional campaign. ©PM
