PARIS, Jul 1 French Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel, whose party has 22 deputies in the National Assembly, believes social media should be turned off during the unrest in the country, he said in an interview with France Info radio.
“We will need to explore the role of social media. When will we finally consider the role of those who right now make money from the hype around robbery scenes and the like? — something is being cut — ed.), they will have to be cut off (turned off — ed.) when it's hot in the country. I prefer the state of emergency in social networks than the population,» he said.
On Saturday, French Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti said that French prosecutors should ask internet operators for the IP addresses of young people calling for riots on the Snapchat app.
Snapchat is a social network widely used in France that allows you to post videos that remain visible for only a few seconds and exchange private messages. Most of the videos about the riots taking place in the country are published on this social network.
Earlier media reported that the French government on Friday met with representatives of digital platforms amid unrest in the country. The BFMTV channel specified that Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Minister Delegate for Digitalization and Telecommunications Jean-Noel Barraud were going to «warn» platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter «of their responsibility and ask for their support», in particular, to identify social media users involved in «offending».
On Tuesday morning, police officers shot and killed a 17-year-old teenager during a check on a road in Nanterre, who, according to the security forces, refused to comply with their demands. In a number of cities in France, riots broke out that have lasted for several days. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, across the country, young people set fire to about 3.3 thousand cars, as well as police and government buildings. According to the Ministry of Economy, about 250 bank branches, 200 grocery stores and about 10 shopping centers were looted. Police special forces are deployed in a number of cities, armored vehicles and helicopters are involved. In total, about 2.4 thousand people were detained, a third of them are minors.