France’s domestic intelligence agency, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Intérieure (DGSI), is facing internal pushback over government pressure to elevate “masculinist” ideology to the level of a major counter-terrorism priority.
While Director General Céline Berthon has sought to treat online male-supremacist networks as a genuine security concern, many field agents and magistrates view the file as a distraction from higher-stakes threats such as Islamist terrorism, foreign espionage and organised political extremism.
According to outlet Le Canard Enchaîné yesterday, the agency’s leadership is pushing for greater surveillance of “masculinist” forums, influencers and “incel” communities, yet operatives on the ground remain sceptical.
“Incel” (involuntary celibate) refers to an online subculture of individuals, primarily heterosexual men, who define themselves by their inability to find romantic or sexual partners despite desiring them. This community often promotes misogyny, blaming women for their lack of relationships and is linked to extreme views, online harassment and, in some cases, violent acts.
Agents reportedly see the directive as mission creep, comparable to earlier demands to monitor Yellow Vest protests, at a time when resources are already stretched thin.
The High Council for Equality between Women and Men (HCE) has repeatedly framed “masculinist” discourse as a potential national security risk, warning that online hostility toward feminism could escalate into violence or even terrorism.
Its January 2026 report urged the integration of misogynistic radicalisation into DGSI threat assessments and called for mandatory training.
A handful of cases, including a 2025 investigation into an 18-year-old charged with preparing an attack inspired by incel content, have been cited as evidence of the trend.
Yet anti-terrorism prosecutors prefer a case-by-case approach rather than systematically applying the full counter-terrorism apparatus to what many see as primarily a social or mental-health phenomenon.
Research by evolutionary psychologist William Costello (University of Texas at Austin), one of the leading empirical scholars on the topic, challenges the scale of the perceived threat.
In extensive surveys and analysis, including work commissioned by the UK Government, Costello has shown that actual incel-linked killings remain extremely rare, about 59 deaths worldwide across all documented cases, a figure dwarfed by other forms of violence.
Costello’s co-authored paper “Why Isn’t There More Incel Violence?” highlights that despite heated online rhetoric, most self-identified incels reject violence and pose a far greater risk to themselves through depression and suicide than to others.
The 2025 Netflix fiction series Adolescence, which dramatises a young boy radicalised by incel ideology committing murder, significantly amplified public and political concern.
The show became a cultural phenomenon, pushed in schools and was even mischaracterised by some politicians as near-documentary evidence of an epidemic.
In July 2025, an 18-year-old man was arrested in Saint-Étienne near his high school while in possession of two knives. He openly identified as an incel, had consumed misogynistic content on TikTok, and was planning attacks on women.
This case became France’s first terrorism investigation explicitly linked to the incel/masculinist movement and was handled by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT).
He was charged with terrorist conspiracy but carried out no actual attack. Authorities and media reported a small number of other foiled plots or threats throughout 2025, with some sources citing three attacks thwarted in one year but none resulted in injuries or deaths.
By contrast, French authorities thwarted at least six Islamist terrorist plots in 2025, while the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office opened 51 new jihadist investigations, almost one per week.
Islamist terrorism remains by far the dominant preoccupation for counter-terrorism services.
Far-left extremist groups, including Antifa (anti-fascist) networks, also remain highly active.
In 2025 they claimed responsibility for more than 120 actions ranging from sabotages of infrastructure projects to violent clashes. A notable case in early 2026 was the fatal beating of a young right-wing activist in Lyon by suspected Antifa militants.
