France fears another Saturday of fury and seeks to block content on networks that calls for looting

The government is going to apply an emergency procedure, which allows request blocking of social networks that do not remove, within one hour, content that incites “insurrection or arming against the State.”

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez explained the mechanism, after specifying that there is evidence that looting and vandalism are coordinated through networks.

“This is not a ban on social networks, but rather it allows a message or content to be deleted,” clarified the Minister of the Interior.

“In general terms, we are expanding the regulations that already exist for terrorism, child pornography and drug trafficking. We extend it in this case to calls for violence, especially in the context of demonstrations. Therefore, it will be possible to remove content from a social network within 24 hours, or even within one hour, if said call incites insurrection,” he explained.

“On October 17, problems arose with social networks and we are drawing the pertinent conclusions,” added Laurent Nuñez on RTL, referring to the day of mobilization of high school students – also protesting against the high cost of living -, which was the one that registered the greatest disorders.

“There are violent people and looters who have gone out into public spaces to rob businesses. They have coordinated, received instructions and communicated through social networks,” he said.

“If the platforms do not withdraw the calls for insurrection, they may be deindexed,” the minister also specified. That would mean reaching the point of completely hiding a social networkremoving it from app stores and search engine results.

From Marseille, President Emmanuel Macron attacked this week against “social networks, which damage our democracies”, describing these platforms as “instruments to mobilize the worst” during demonstrations, since they generate “a kind of derealization of violence.”

“They have been used – especially on October 17 – to attract people, young or not so young, to places where criminal acts, attacks and looting have occurred,” said the head of state, lamenting “the great current confusion, a kind of permanent excitement and a fascination with violence.”

It should be noted that the topic of blocking social networks has arisen several times in recent days.

The digital medium Blast published exclusive information about it on Saturday, October 24. This investigative medium had access to a letter that Sébastien Lecornu had sent two days before to the directors of the four large French operators (Orange, Bouygues Telecom, Free and SFR).

In essence, the minister asked them to be prepared to a temporary blocking of the Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram applications, in the event of new violent acts outside the demonstrations on October 24.

Always according to Blast, although the government wanted a blockade limited to 4G and 5G mobile networks, and specific geographic areas, operators responded that they could not implement such segmentation in the short term.

In the past, TikTok was already banned in France – specifically in overseas territories – during the deadly riots that occurred in New Caledonia in 2024. In May, the social network was suspended by government order for nearly fifteen days. It was about a controversial measure, challenged before the Council of State by associations defending freedoms.

Unable to resort to the law of April 3, 1955 on the state of emergency – which only allows the blocking of a site or a network in case of incitement “to the commission of terrorist acts or apology thereof” – the government then relied on the “theory of exceptional circumstances.” A jurisprudential doctrine that allows the administration to deviate from ordinary legality in crisis situations. This criterion was validated by the Council of State during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The platforms would be obliged to remove said content within 24 hours. Otherwise, they would face “blocking” or “removal from search results.”

On Tuesday, in the Senate, the government achieved approval of a measure that opens the door to blocking content that incites violence on social networks.

The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, considers this measure a response to the destruction committed on the sidelines of the demonstrations on October 17. “At this very moment, calls are circulating for next Saturday that constitute incitements to insurrection. It is this type of content that we want to remove,” the minister explained to the senators, during the examination of the bill “whoever breaks, pays” (“casseurs-payeurs”).

An amendment to this text, presented on Monday and modified at the last minute by the government, was approved overnight in the upper house by 219 votes in favor to 115 against.

The measure contemplates expanding the scope of action of the Pharos platform – where illicit content is reported on the Internet – to allow the administrative authority to request the removal of content “susceptible to causing a serious alteration of public order”, especially when it incites material damage, acts of violence or insurrection.

“This is about disarming criminals and their use of networks,” celebrated the senator of the Republicans (LR) party, Damien Michallet. The right, most of the centrists and the National Rally (Rassemblement National) supported the measure.

The left was firmly opposed. The environmentalist Thomas Dossus denounced a “disproportionate obstacle to freedom of expression.”

The communist Fabien Gay considered that this mechanism could facilitate “the control of social movements” if they fell into the hands of an “authoritarian regime.” Some legislators from LR and the center also expressed doubts about the “proportionality” of the measure.

“We are not talking about closing social networks. We are simply talking about using the Pharos system to eliminate content,” Laurent Nuñez tried to clarify.

In its bill – known as “make the rioters pay” – the government also managed the approval of another highly criticized measure: allow the prefect to impose individual prohibitions on demonstrating against the most violent profiles, even without a prior conviction.

In the event of a terrorist attack, there is a procedure to block telephone and internet, except for the police and emergency services. Why not apply this procedure in cases of violent incidents, which resemble terrorism?