French President Emmanuel Macron suggested social media bans during riots.

 

Rioters in France. Politico/AFP/Getty.

French President Emmanuel Macron suggested banning social media during riots. Politico EU. He said that doing so was an option during a speech with France's mayors. He said that he was glad that it didn't happen during the recent riots but reserved the right to do so in future riots. Macron blamed video games and social media for the riots, which started after a 17 year old was shot and killed by police. Macron's spokespeople downplayed the statements after they generated outrage on both the right and left. France has signed on to several UN resolutions that oppose the use of tech shutdowns. 

My Comments:

The riots appear to have largely winded down in the last couple of days. Media coverage also winded down as expected. The riots probably ran out of steam largely because there isn't too much left to steal or burn. Like I expected, these riots were dangerous but typical of the riots in France. 

With that being said, it's very clear that the powers that be in France were spooked by these riots. Macron would not have said this otherwise. But I don't think he was spooked by the rioters themselves. Indeed, these are far from the first riots that France has had. I think he was spooked by the fact that the French people were getting sick of it. 

I saw reports of ordinary citizens picking up baseball bats to fight the rioters. Masked vigilantes gathering up rioters and handing them over to police. The police and military claiming that they were at war with the rioters. All of this is a threat to Macron's power and he absolutely doesn't want this to happen again. 

And I think Macron is being dishonest here. Social media didn't make these riots happen, the fact that France has an underclass of migrants who, not only shouldn't be there in the first place, but are not integrated into French society at all. Social media might have helped the outrage grow a little but they had plenty of traditional media coverage to get people riled up in the first place. 

Even more ridiculously he tried to blame video games. That might have played well back when video games were a niche hobby that most people didn't partake in. But now, when basically everyone plays video games? It just shows how out of touch Macron is here. 

As for the potential ban on social media during a riots, it seems like a great way to piss off ordinary people. Though rioters may use social media to organize, ordinary citizens use it to get news and fight out what areas to avoid. Plus it's a huge violation of civil rights. People have a right to speak out during riots, either to condemn or support them. Either way, Macron angered a lot of people here and I am not surprised that he walked it back.