President Emmanuel Macron’s government faced a backlash on Wednesday after the centrist leader called for powers to “cut off” social media in case of widespread violence like riots over the past week. “We have to think about the social networks, about the bans we’ll have to put in place. When things get out of control, we might need to be able to regulate or cut them off,” Macron told a meeting of mayors on Tuesday according to media reports. Macron and his ministers have singled out platforms like Snapchat, TikTok and encrypted messenger Telegram for their role in spreading images of the nights of violence following the June 27 police shooting of a 17-year-old teenager, Nahel M. “When (social media) becomes a tool for organising or for attempting to kill, it’s a real problem,” Macron said. “This is worrying, when we reach the point of saying the only solution is cutting off social networks, you ask yourself what point we’ve reached” in France, Greens leader Marine Tondelier told broadcaster France Inter today.—AFP
