In the wake of Wednesday’s shooting attack in Paris on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which left at least 10 journalists and two policemen dead, thousands are expressing their support for the French paper–and the right to free speech–on Twitter, using the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie.
Though officials have not yet identified the attackers, suspicions point to a radical Islamist group. Charlie Hebdo‘s office was firebombed in 2011 after running a satirical cartoon that mocked the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
The hashtag, which translates to “I am Charlie” began trending worldwide just hours after the attack. Many users tweeted satirical cartoons, including a famous one penned by cartoon editor Bob Mankoff at the New Yorker in 2012 which reads, “Please enjoy this culturally, ethically, religiously and politically correct cartoon responsibly.”
Another cartoon drawn in response to the attack by Australian artist David Pope also circulated on Twitter:
Others tweeted in the hopes that the terrorist attack would not deter other journalists, writers and artists from engaging in satire.
The U.S. Embassy in France has also changed its Twitter photo to an image that reads “Je Suis Charlie.”
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