# Coco.gg

Coco Chat (most recently accessible on the web as coco.gg, originally coco.fr), was an online chat site without registration and free to access (freemium), created by Isaac Steidel, and was known for being regularly publicly associated with police or judicial cases. It closed in June 2024. The site was variously referred to as Coco Chat or Cocoland.

## Usage

Like many online chat platforms, the site facilitated connections between its users around public or private chat rooms and allowed everyone to exchange private messages. It was often likened to a dating site.
Perhaps because it permitted its users to remain anonymous, the site was particularly popular with gay people.

## History

Since its creation in 2003 by Isaac Steidel, the site belonged to several companies based in France or Hong Kong, all owned by a single French individual. Until 2022, the site was hosted in France and was accessible at the address coco.fr. Some time after the arrest of M. Pelicot in the Mazan rapes case (early 2021), Coco Chat changed its domain to coco.gg.
This website was made technically possible with the advent of Web 2.0. Previously, group discussions (known as rooms) were only possible via Internet Relay Chat, which was challenging for the general public.
In 2023, the site belonged to Bulgarian company Vinci SA and by then was using a Guernsey (.gg) domain name which was first registered on 31 December 2020 and was recording 500,000 visits per month.
On June 25, 2024, the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office announced the closure of the site and the judicial seizure of its servers. At the time of the closure France Info reported that it was hosted in Belgium and the closure was facilitated through Eurojust multijurisdictional cooperation. Other sources stated that site was hosted in Germany.
Subsequent to the closure several apparent successor sites have been seen, such as coco-chat.fr and blairoudeurs.fr, but are nothing but cybersquatting scams.

## Controversies and cases

Easily accessible, simple to use, and without moderation, coco.fr (and latterly coco.gg) was frequently associated with pedocriminal cases, homophobic incidents, or those related to drug trafficking. Its lack of moderation and a message history that did not exceed a few hours made it a "hunting ground for predators" according to the organization 'Agir contre la prostitution des enfants'. In October 2023, the organization SOS Homophobie called on French public authorities to shut down the site.
In France, several violent homophobic attacks or those linked to drug trafficking have been connected to the use of coco.gg to identify and trap victims, notably in Dijon, Mâcon, Grande-Synthe, Marseille, and in March 2024, in Solliès-Pont.
Between January 2021 and May 2024, nearly 23,000 judicial procedures were opened in connection with this platform. Gérald Darmanin announced he had referred the matter to the Public Prosecutor of the Republic in a speech on 6 May 2024. The site was shut down in June 2024.

### Homophobic murder of Michel Sollossi

In 2018, Michel Sollossi was stabbed to death by Mohamed E., a man he had met on coco.fr, whom he had invited to his home. Although premeditation was not considered in the sentencing of the perpetrator, the homophobic nature of the attack was deemed an aggravating circumstance by the court.

### Mazan rapes

In the Mazan rapes case, spanning from 2011 to 2020, 51 men were convicted of raping the same woman, who was drugged by her husband and made available to them on coco.fr.

### Richard Dewitte Case

In September 2023, Richard Dewitte, singer of the band Il était une fois, was sentenced to 3 years in prison for corruption of a minor under 15 years old. He was found guilty of making sexual propositions to a 13-year-old girl via the coco.fr site.