France investigates return of banned website linked to rape and sexual abuse

France has launched an investigation into the reappearance of the website that enabled Dominique Pelicot to recruit dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife, Gisèle, after it was banned two years ago.
 

Authorities say the French-language platform Coco has been linked to crimes including rape, murder and sexual abuse of children. The website, which was registered abroad, was shut down in June 2024.

The Paris public prosecutor's office told French news agency AFP it had opened an investigation into the website's reopening.

Now operating under the name Cocoland, the site was still accessible on Tuesday.

France's commissioner for children, Sarah el Haïry, raised the alarm in mid-April.

"The reopening of the Coco site is a real slap in the face to the promises of protection we've made," she told radio station RMC then.

Such websites "exploit every loophole – they seek out prey, and that prey is children," she said. "We will track them down, we will hound them, we will give them no respite."

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Prior to its re-emergence, the investigation into the original Coco platform was "well advanced", according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

According to the Paris prosecutor's office, between 1 January, 2021 and 7 May, 2024, "no fewer than 23,051 legal proceedings related to the Coco platform" were initiated.

Seventy prosecutors' offices across the country had forwarded cases involving the site, affecting 480 victims.

Isaac Steidl, the founder and manager of the Coco website, was in January 2025 charged with complicity in drug trafficking, possession and distribution of child pornography, corruption of a minor via the internet, and criminal conspiracy. He denies the charges.

His lawyer Julien Zanatta said Steidl had nothing to do with the new website.

'Fully fledged communities'

The platform has been at the centre of several criminal cases, including the high-profile Pelicot trial.

Pelicot was sentenced in 2024 to 20 years in prison for aggravated rape, after he recruited dozens of strangers to rape his wife Gisèle after drugging her in their home, between 2011 and 2020.

He spoke to potential attackers on the website's chatroom called "A son insu" – meaning "without their knowledge".

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Two French women's rights groups called on Tuesday for the authorities to launch a broader inquiry into other, similar websites and platforms.

"Given recent cases such as that of Gisèle Pelicot, it is highly likely that French users are participating [on such sites] and that victims in France are involved," the Women's Foundation and the group M'endors pas ("Don't Put Me to Sleep") said in a joint statement.

The latter group was co-founded by Gisèle Pelicot's daughter, Caroline Darian.

"These are not isolated episodes but organised crimes by fully fledged communities that encourage and structure such violence," the statement continued.

El-Haïry announced on Wednesday that she had also filed a complaint with the courts and digital media regulators regarding two websites – Chaat.fr and le garçon.net – which she said "connect pedophiles" and on which "there is no age verification" and "sexually explicit messages are forwarded to users".

"Children and minors are being approached by predators. We must put an end to these grey areas," she told RMC, adding that a third site, Chatiw, was also under scrutiny.

(with AFP)