Five questions about The Sorority, the app that alerted 110,000 people?

The female solidarity “community” had been active in finding Philippine, the 19-year-old student whose body was found on Saturday, September 21, on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. Last seen the day before, at 2 p.m., she had been actively searched for by her friends and family. They had alerted the authorities, organizing a search where her phone had last been geolocated. And by sending a signal from The Sorority application, which brings together a huge network of women and people from gender minorities, ready to help each other.

What is The Sorority?

An application, free, to download on any smartphone. Even if it is the work of a French woman, Priscillia Routier-Trillard, it works beyond the borders of France: it has been translated into thirteen languages ​​since its launch in 2020. It brings together women and people from gender minorities, after identity verification. The founder speaks of a “community”. “Pure civic mutual aid”, she sums up ReleaseIts aim is to “to face together, in particular, domestic violence, intra-family violence and all forms of harassment”.

Concretely, in everyday life, what is the application used for?

All people who have been approved by the moderation teams can, if they feel unsafe, send a signal. “Whether we are followed in the street, or we feel in danger on public transport, at the office, at school, in the evening, at a festival, or even at home,” develops Priscillia Routier-Trillard. All you have to do is press the “Activate alert” button in the center of the main screen. A signal is then sent to the first fifty people around you who have the app, “without geographical limitation”. The latter are then led to call the person in a vulnerable situation, send them messages and even contact the authorities for them.

“Contacting the person directly helps reduce stress and the feeling of shock, explains the manager. We can suggest that she join us by pretending to know us, for example.”. The goal of this tactic? To reverse this stunning effect, which then shifts the attacker. In four years, the figures have remained constant, a sign of the effectiveness of the application: in one minute, around 10 to 15 people make contact with the person who sounded the alarm.

What if I live in a rural area?

The Sorority community is not limited to big cities. Priscillia Routier-Trillard talks about real «clusters» having developed in “unlikely places”. “Every person who downloads The Sorority has the power to make their street and neighborhood safer by telling their neighbors and friends about it,” she argues. The more the app is downloaded, the less isolated women and gender minorities will be.

How did the app help find Philippine’s body?

It was not the young student who raised the alarm. Priscillia Routier-Trillard tells how, this Saturday, September 21, “a close family member” to him “directly written” to ask him to issue a search notice. “We broadcast it around 2 p.m. to our users, so 110,000 people. The search was scheduled for 3:30 p.m., and Philippine was found 30 minutes later,” she recalls. It was the first time the app had been used in this way. While it is impossible to know how many people took action following the alert launched on The Sorority, it was widely shared on social networks: many Internet users were upset to have received the report.

Since then, 6,000 people have applied to join The Sorority, its founder says.

Can men join?

For the moment, no. But Priscillia Routier-Trillard indicates that a new version of the application currently being developed will allow parallel, secure and dedicated access to men who are victims of violence (domestic, intra-family), or even homophobia. Without this calling into question the non-mixed nature of the basic community.