A student organising school blockades on Snapchat received a message from an account named 'Mamadou'.
“Bismillah, it's the darkness. When's the blockade, wallah bro? We're gonna smash everything. Add me to the blockade group,” the message read, accompanied by Algerian flag emojis.
The students grew suspicious. They believed the sender could be an undercover police officer attempting to infiltrate their protest groups.
Within weeks, the message's opening line had appeared on protest signs across France: 'Bismillah, c'est les ténèbres.'
'Bismillah' is Arabic for 'in the name of God', an expression Muslims commonly use before beginning a task. In French slang, it can also mean 'let's go'.
'C'est les ténèbres' translates to 'it's the darkness' and is used in slang to describe a hopeless situation.
Students said the combination of the two expressions made little sense, raising suspicions about the sender's intentions.
The screenshot surfaced in early October, as students used Snapchat to coordinate school blockades.
The protests began near Paris in mid-September over overcrowded classrooms and deteriorating school facilities. They have since fed into wider nationwide protests over the cost of living.
Other accounts reportedly asked where the blockades would take place and who was selling fireworks and smoke grenades.
However, the identity of the people behind the accounts has not been verified. French police and the interior ministry have not commented on the messages.
Online claims linking the accounts to locations near police stations also remain unverified. Some screenshots circulating online may be hoaxes.
Rather than letting the phrase disappear, protesters turned it into a joke and a slogan. They used it to mock the suspected infiltration and what students described as the stereotypes reflected in the message.
The phrase soon travelled beyond France. It appeared at a union march in Brussels on October 9 and at student demonstrations in Italy.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg also repeated it on October 13 while visiting striking students north of Paris.
What began as a suspicious Snapchat message has since become a meme and a symbol of protest. The identity of the person behind the original message, however, remains unknown.