It was during a statement to the mayors of the hundreds of municipalities that were affected by the recent riots that Emmanuel Macron spoke on Tuesday July 4. Indeed, since the case of the death of young Nahel, the French territory has experienced urban violence everywhere on its soil. During this meeting, the President of the Republic indicated that he was thinking of a new measure to allow France to calm tensions during possible future crisis situations. The latter would concern social networks and would not be to everyone’s taste.
The Head of State would then have affirmed that “we need to have a reflection on social networks, on the prohibitions that we must put in place. And, when things get carried away, we must perhaps put ourselves in a situation to regulate them or to cut them”, as BFMTV explains to us. Emmanuel Macron would have subsequently added that this is a debate which must take place “cold”. Indeed, the President declares that it is not necessary ” especially not to do it hot and I am pleased that we did not have to do it […] But I think that it is a real debate that we must have, cold. Because when it becomes an instrument of gathering or to try to kill, it’s a real subject”, tells us the daily Le Parisien. This question of social networks will be tackled during a next meeting which will take place next September, according to Robert Ménard, the mayor of Béziers.
However, this statement by the President does not please everyone. As is the case of the First Secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, who will declare on the Twitter platform that “the country of human and citizens’ rights cannot align itself with the great democracies of China, Russia and Iran”. .
Other elected officials, both left and right, think similarly of Olivier Faure. But is this possible “cut” of social networks a measure that the government really wants to adopt? If so, how would the latter wish to put it in place? Olivier Véran spoke on this subject this Wednesday, July 5.
It was the government spokesman, Olivier Véran, who gave more information on this possible measure, explaining the presidential text. He explains that this regularization of social networks could be “suspensions of functionality”, such as the suspension “of geolocation functions on certain platforms which allow young people to find themselves in such a place by showing scenes and how to set fires etc”. For the moment, nothing certain has been decided by the government, which will reopen the debate, possibly in September, as indicated by the mayor of Béziers.
