French prosecutors have launched an investigation into the reappearance of a website linked to the crimes of Dominique Pelicot, who was convicted of drugging and raping his wife and recruiting strangers online to assault her.
The original platform, Coco.gg, operated without moderation and required no registration. French authorities linked it to tens of thousands of criminal reports, including sexual abuse of children, drug offenses, rape, and murder. It was shut down in 2024 after being cited in over 23,000 complaints.
In early April, at least two similar websites with designs nearly identical to the original appeared online. One, Cocoland.cc, released a statement denying any connection to the original site, but by April 29 it appeared to be down. Another similarly named site remained accessible.
Paris prosecutors have opened an investigation into Cocoland for “disseminating violent, pornographic, or offensive messages accessible to minors.”
Isaac Steidl, founder of the original Coco platform, was charged in January 2025 with crimes including possession and distribution of child pornography. His lawyer told AFP that Steidl has “nothing to do” with the new sites.
Sarah El Haïry, France’s high commissioner for childhood, called the reappearance a “collective failure in the face of one of the most serious forms of violence: child sexual abuse.” She added that such websites “exploit every loophole, they seek out prey, and that prey is children.” El Haïry said she has filed a complaint against two other websites that host open chatrooms.
The original Coco platform gained infamy during the trial of Dominique Pelicot, who used a chatroom called “Without her knowledge” to recruit men to rape his wife. Forty-nine men were convicted alongside him in December 2024.