Three nights of urban unrest have been widely broadcast on social media, with TikTok, Snapchat and the like in the sights of the government, which condemns “a form of simulated violence” and asks platforms to “arrange for the removal of the most sensitive content”. “, reports AFP.

“Fires and tension after Nakhel’s death”, #Nakhel, #nanter, #police, #Civilwar… Most of the keywords and trends suggested by social media algorithms point to videos about the outbreak of violence that has gripped France after his death of young Nakhel. during a police check on Tuesday in Nanterre.

On Snapchat, a social network popular among young people, with an interactive map that shows in real time where posts are concentrated, videos of destruction and clashes with the police have gone viral.

“At the time (of the riots), in 2005, we did not have social networks. Today, things are moving very fast,” Mohamed Mehmache, founder of the ACLEFEU collective, warned on Friday, fearing that these tools would fuel the unrest even more.

“In social networks everywhere they said ‘we are gathering to attack the police.’ It was not as coordinated as they had hoped, but it was the reality,” lamented Jean-Marc Luca, director of the public security department in Essonne.

Faced with the phenomenon, Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that he expects a “spirit of responsibility” from major social media platforms that organize “violent gatherings” and that “also generate a form of simulated violence that leads younger people”. people to move away from reality.”

“Sometimes it feels like some of them live in video games that have intoxicated them,” he added, a thinly veiled criticism of the video game phenomena of Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty Warzone, albeit numerous. videos that have flooded social networks refer to them, sometimes ironically or even jokingly.