After a second crisis meeting with senior ministers, French President Emmanuel Macron disclosed on Friday, 30 June 2023, that social media are playing a “considerable role” in the spreading unrest sparked by the police shooting that resulted in the death of 17-year-old Nahel M.

According to figures given by President Emmanuel Macron at the start of a crisis meeting, a total of 492 buildings were damaged, 2,000 vehicles were burned and 3,880 fires were started.

Updating the previous figure of 667, the interior ministry disclosed that French police arrested 875 people during overnight rioting, around half of them in the Paris region.

Macron said that he wants social media platforms to remove sensitive content, stating that violence is being organized online.

Macron averred that his government would work with technology companies to establish procedures for “the removal of the most sensitive content.”

“I expect a spirit of responsibility from these platforms,” Macron said, even though he did not specify the content he had in mind.

French authorities also plan to request, when “useful,” the identities “of those who use these social networks to call for disorder or exacerbate the violence,” Macron iterated.

Additionally, the French President urged parents to keep child rioters off the streets, adding that about a third of the 875 people arrested overnight for rioting were “young, or very young”.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Macron said, “It’s the responsibility of parents to keep them at home. It’s not the state’s job to act in their place.”

Macron also said that additional security forces would be deployed to contain nationwide unrest in the wake of a teen’s killing by police.

In a short statement, President Macron said Nahel’s death had been instrumentalised, denouncing the “unacceptable exploitation of the adolescent’s death”.

He condemned the recent violence “with the greatest firmness”, adding the current situation was “unacceptable and unjustifiable”.

However, Macron did not announce a state of emergency, a tactic used by a previous French government in 2005 to quell rioting after the accidental deaths of two boys while they fled police.

Public Transport Set To Be Suspended

France’s Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, has ordered regional prefects in the whole country to halt public transport with buses and trams from 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT).

Prime Minister of France, Elisabeth Borne disclosed that the police will use armoured vehicles to suppress riots.

Also, “Additional mobile forces” would be deployed along with the vehicles belonging to France’s gendarmerie, Borne said, while announcing the cancellation of “large-scale events binding personnel and potentially posing risks to public order.”

Local authorities in Marseille, France’s second largest city, have announced a ban on public demonstrations on Friday. All public transport in Marseille will also cease as from 19:00 local time.

Meanwhile, Nanterre Mayor, Patrick Jarry announced that Nahel’s burial is scheduled for Saturday, July 1, 2023.

Jarry stressed that the country needs to “push for changes” in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

“There’s a feeling of injustice in many residents’ minds, whether it’s about school achievement, getting a job, access to culture, housing and other life issues. I believe we are in that moment when we need to face the urgency (of the situation).”
Nanterre Mayor, Patrick Jarry

We must continue to support Nahel’s family and his mother, who will attend her son’s funeral on Saturday, Jarry added, saying that he had no plan to impose a curfew at the moment.

De-escalating violence was the priority, he said. “We must continue to be present, to be alongside each other and to talk to each other,” he added.