PARIS (Reuters) – Large social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat should co-operate with French authorities to calm down violence which has erupted this week following the killing of a 17-year old by a police officer, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.
“Social media platforms play a significant role in the events of the past few days”, Macron said in televised remarks from a government emergency meeting.
Citing TikTok and Snapchat, he said social media help rioters organise themselves but also contributed to “mimicking” behaviour by some young people, who repeated what they saw online and lost track of reality.
“It sometimes feels like some of them re-live in the streets the video games that have intoxicated them,” he said.
The government will work with social networks towards withdrawing “the most sensitive types of content” and is asking social media companies to disclose to French authorities the identities of “those who use these social networks to call for disorder and promote violence”.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel, editing by Michel Rose)
