Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter…thousands of videos and photos of the riots have been circulating on social media in recent days. Some call for people to come together, others show uncovered, easily identifiable faces. For three nights, urban violence has taken place in several French cities, following the death of young Nahel during a police check in Nanterre. The video of the officer’s shot is also relayed en masse on the platforms.
Faced with this phenomenon, Emmanuel Macron spoke on Friday calling on the major social media platforms to a “spirit of responsibility”. He notably cited Snapchat and TikTok where “violent gatherings” are organized which “also arouse a form of mimicry of violence, which leads among the youngest to a form of exit from reality”. The Head of State sometimes has “the feeling that some of them live in the video games which have intoxicated them”, added the President.
Representatives of Snapchat, TikTok, Meta, and Twitter were therefore invited Friday at 6 p.m. to the Ministry of the Interior for a meeting alongside Ministers Gérald Darmanin and Jean-Noël Barrot (Digital). Objectir, “alert” them on “their responsibilities” in urban violence.
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“We will take several measures in the coming hours (…) first in connection with these platforms, in order to organize the withdrawal of the most sensitive content”, announced the president.
Another presidential request, that of the cooperation of social networks with the investigators. “Requests will also be made, wherever it is useful and whenever it is useful, to obtain the identity of those who use these social networks to call for disorder or to exacerbate violence”, specified Emmanuel Macron.
In a statement sent to Le Figaro, Snapchat claims to have “proactively examined since Tuesday the Snap Map”, a tool that allows public and geolocated publication of short videos, in order to study content related to the riots. “We remove content that violates our guidelines,” such as “incitement to hatred or violent behavior.” Snapchat specifies, however, “allow content that factually reports a situation.”
