The largely-male Ligue du LOL (League of LOL) mocked women, including other journalists, with rape jokes and photoshopped pornographic images.

Dozens of women have spoken out since the group was uncovered by the major French daily Libération.

Libération's online editor Alexandre Hervaud is among those suspended.

People in the League of LOL set up anonymous Twitter accounts in order to harass prominent journalists, writers and activists - predominantly targeting women.

Vincent Glad, a well-known freelancer who also worked for Libération, admitted founding the group in 2009. He has also been suspended from the paper.

He apologised on Twitter (in French), saying that he now realised that "such practices were unacceptable and 'LOL' was not funny at all when it is done in a pack".

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