27.10.2026, Paris.
The French government announced that social media platforms will be required to remove calls for riots and violence within one hour. If they fail to comply, access to these platforms will be blocked, Numerama wrote on October 27.
According to the French online publication, on October 26 the French Senate adopted Amendment No. 94 to the Law on Confidence in the Digital Economy (LCEN). Under this document, the authorities will be entitled to require internet service providers to block access to certain websites and search engines to remove them from search results if platform owners fail to delete unwanted content within the prescribed time limits. No prior court ruling will be required for such actions.
The measures are aimed at preventing calls promoting protest violence threatening state institutions or territorial integrity, as well as armed conflict with the state or any part of it.
The amendment also requires the immediate removal, within 24 hours, of explicit instructions for acts of violence, theft, and property damage that could cause serious disturbances to public order.
Failure to comply with a demand to remove such content within 24 hours would carry a proposed penalty of six months’ imprisonment and a fine of €150,000. For organizations, the fine could reach 2% of their turnover.
An amendment has been added to the bill on compensation for damage caused by riots and property damage in public places. The Senate will consider the draft on October 27 and 28.
As the publication points out, following the riots on October 17 and 18 in Paris and other cities, the French authorities tightened their oversight of social media. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu had previously called on internet service providers to be prepared to shut down TikTok, Instagram (organization banned in Russia), which is operated by Meta (organization banned in Russia), and Snapchat during a protest planned for October 24. X was subsequently added to the list, but the block was never implemented.
In a letter dated October 22, Lecornu emphasized that social media had become an important tool not only for spreading illegal calls to action but also for rapidly coordinating violence during protests. The platforms were used to organize looting, exchange information about targets, coordinate the movements of groups, and identify the locations of law enforcement personnel.
The new amendment is intended to establish a legal basis for blocking a platform if it fails to remove a call for insurrection within one hour.
According to France’s Ministry of the Interior, 410,000 people took part in protests across the country on October 24, including 110,000 who gathered in Paris, the newspaper Le Parisien reported.
French Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez emphasized that the demonstrations took place without serious incidents, although cases of vandalism and theft were recorded in some cities. According to him, around 1,000 participants were arrested.
During the mass protests held in France on October 17, approximately 800,000 people took to the streets. In response, the authorities announced an increased police presence at future demonstrations. Interior Minister Lecornu acknowledged that police responses during previous protests had been “too slow and insufficiently flexible.”
Large-scale protest actions originate from students protests, which began on September 21 with the blockade of Lycée Saint-Exupéry in a Paris suburb. The students expressed dissatisfaction with the shortage of teachers and the lack of positions for social workers and school psychologists.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
