French presidential candidate calls for social media blackout amid riots
Social media or wider internet blackouts are staple tactics for authoritarian regimes.
Gabriel Attal. By Cybernews / Shutterstock.
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- Gabriel Attal proposed temporary, local social media blocks during riots in France.
- Research suggests social media shutdowns can increase violent protests and fuel rumors.
- French courts previously rejected a TikTok suspension in New Caledonia as disproportionate.
- The unrest began over school conditions, then spread to costs, fuel prices, and health services.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
With France still shaken up after massive riots over the weekend, Gabriel Attal, a presidential candidate, has suggested granting the government power to selectively block access to social media platforms during times of unrest.
“You have young people at home who see their friends going out to loot, which gives the impression that they’re getting away with it,” Attal said in an interview with French radio station RTL.
“They see them on social media, and then they go out too,” added Attal, France’s ex-prime minister who now leads President Emmanual Macron's political party.
There’s a caveat: according to Attal, who announced in May his candidacy for the 2027 French presidential election, such measures should only be “temporary” and “limited to the area where the riots are taking place.”
His proposal is still controversial. Such restrictions are more common in countries such as Iran, China, Russia, or India – they aren’t exactly full-fledged democracies.
Even then, studies, including a landmark paper by Stanford researcher Jan Rydzak, have shown that blocking social media actually increases violent protests. When those who are willing to protest peacefully cannot organize on social networks, chaos ensues.
Rydzak's study also asserts that shutting down platforms where verified accounts report the news creates a critical information vacuum. Rather than stopping the rumors, a blackout supercharges them.
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Specifically in France, a blackout would probably be blocked by the courts. In 2024, Paris blocked TikTok access to New Caledonia, its overseas territory, amid protests.
But the judges soon ruled that this suspension constituted “a disproportionate infringement of rights and freedoms.”
The protests in France began in September, when students at a high school in the southeast of Paris protested against staff shortages and deteriorating school conditions.
The movement soon expanded to be about the cost-of-living crisis, rising fuel prices, and declining health services. Violence and looting, amplified by disinformation campaigns, erupted in the streets of several major cities.
