French government could cut off social media during unrest, says Macron

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Emmanuel Macron has said the French government should consider controlling and cutting off social media networks “when things get out of hand” in the country.

The president’s comments came as ministers blamed young people using platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok for organising and encouraging rioting and violence after the shooting last week of a teenager during a police traffic stop in a Paris suburb.

“We need to think about how young people use social networks … when things get out of hand, we may have to regulate them or cut them off.

“Above all, we shouldn’t do this in the heat of the moment and I’m pleased we didn’t have to,” Macron told a meeting of more than 200 mayors whose municipalities were hit by the violence.

“I think it’s a real debate that we need to have in the cold light of day,” Macron told the mayors in a video obtained by BFM television.

Critics said it would put France alongside authoritarian countries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea in considering such measures.

Olivier Faure, the leader of the Socialist party, tweeted: “The country of the rights of man and citizens cannot align itself with those great democracies of China, Russia and Iran.”

Olivier Marleix, from the centre-right Les R?publicains, added: “Cut social media? Like China, Iran, North Korea? Even if it’s a provocation to distract attention, it’s in very bad taste.”

The Guardian has approached the ?lys?e Palace for a response to the row. Macron last week called on social media companies to show a “sense of responsibility” and remove sensitive posts, particularly those showing or encouraging violenceor looting.

French ministers on Friday met representatives of TikTok and Snapchat. The following day, the justice minister, ?ric Dupond-Moretti, suggested legal moves would be taken to identify those using social media to organise illegal acts and bring them to court.

The government has battled riots and looting since a police officer killed 17-year-old Nahel M during a traffic stop on 27 June, rekindling longstanding accusations of systemic racism among France’s security forces.

The violence appeared to be easing on Wednesday morning with 17 arrests across the country, including seven in Paris, overnight. Official figures reported 116 incidents of arson including eight buildings and 78 vehicles.

Violent storms hit large swathes of northern France, including the capital, on Tuesday evening, encouraging the relative calm after seven days of widespread unrest.

French prosecutors have meanwhile opened an investigation into the death of a 27-year-old man who was hit by a projectile at the time of the riots on Saturday, the Marseille prosecutor’s office has said.

The man died on Saturday night while Marseille was engulfed in riots and pillaging, but prosecutors said it was not possible to determine where the man was when he was shot or whether the victim had taken part in the riots.

Prosecutors on Tuesday said the likely cause of the death in Marseille was a violent shock to the chest from a “flash-ball” projectile as used by riot police but did not specify who fired or owned the gun. The impact led to cardiac arrest and sudden death.

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Flash-ball guns are designed to be non-lethal riot control weapons that do not penetrate the skin. Their use by police in France is disputed as the projectiles have led to the loss of eyes, head injuries and other trauma.

The EU justice commissioner, Didier Reynders, on Wednesday said that violence in France, by some police officers and demonstrators “poses a problem”, in comments to Belgian radio.

“It is striking” that a “very high level of violence” was seen in protests in France in recent years over cost of living, pension reform and last week’s police killing of a teen driver, he told Belgian public radio RTBF. “That really needs to be looked at because it poses a problem,” the commissioner, a former Belgian prime minister, said.

Reynders said the issue was with “a certain number of police officers … [and] the behaviour of people who have the right to freely protest – that’s a fundamental right – but not to loot shops, to destroy stores, not to destroy public equipment”.

Macron’s meeting on Tuesday with the more than 200 mayors was pitched as an opportunity to explore the “deeper reasons” for it.

But with right- and leftwing officials pointing fingers at one another and each side insistent on their own solutions, Macron said at the end of the meeting that they had failed to find unanimity.

Zartoshte Bakhtiari, the mayor of Neuilly-sur-Marne, east of Paris, said: “I came to hear the president give us a vision, set a course. I didn’t come for a group therapy session.”

Macron reportedly also suggested fining the parents of children involved. “With the first crime, we need to find a way of sanctioning the families financially and easily,” he said, according to comments reported by Le Parisien newspaper.