© LUDOVIC MARIN/EPAFrance's President Emmanuel Macron addresses mayors of cities affected by violent clashes.
Following the police murder of Nahel M. on 27 June, widespread riots have swept across France, resulting in up to €1 billion in damage, with many of the clashes coordinated via social media sites like Snapchat, TikTok or Instagram.
According to BMFTV, Macron said on Tuesday that "when things go out of hand, maybe one may have to regulate or cut access [to social media]."
Rumours had it that the French government was considering cutting access to the internet. Yet the Interior Ministry called it "fake news" in a tweet on Sunday.
AFP said the same on Tuesday, repeating that it was fake news and explaining "it is technically unfeasible and illegal in France".
Yet, the rumour intensified as Robert Ménard, the far-right mayor of Béziers, told the French television LCI and TF1 that during the meeting, Macron had suggested "thinking about cutting access to social media: Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram" in certain conditions.
Later in the day, the television channel BFMTV reported that Macron had said in front of the 220 mayors who experienced the most severe looting and violence in their constituencies that France needs "to reflect on the usage of social networks by young people [...] and on the limits that should be imposed", eventually suggesting to "cut access" to them.
According to a source present during the meeting who confirmed Macron's words to EURACTIV, the President does not wish to take a decision while the riots are still ongoing. However, he thinks it is "a real debate that we need to have when things settle down," because "when [social media] become a tool of gathering or a killing tool, it is a real problem".
Allegations of authoritarianism
Internet shutdowns are typically used by authoritarian regimes in the context of more or less open conflict, in response to widespread and potentially violent protests, before elections, or in order to hide human rights violations.
Underscoring this in a somewhat ironic tweet, the president of the Parti Socialiste (S&D), Olivier Faure, wrote that "the country of human rights cannot align itself with the great democracies of China, Russia and Iran".
The far-left party La France Insoumise (GUE/NGL) attacked Macron for proposing such an idea, comparing him to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
At the same time, a Member of Parliament from Marine Le Pen's far-right Le Rassemblement National (ID) also talked about a "dramatic authoritarian drift".
A rrogant, fumbling bureaucrats !