Fireworks explode during clashes with police in Le Port, French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, on June 30, 2023, three days after a 17-year-old boy was shot in the chest by police at point-blank range in Nanterre, a western suburb of Paris. France has banned the sale, possession and transport of fireworks during the July 14 national holiday weekend, following riots sparked by the police killing a teenager, the government said on July 9, 2023. — AFP
Social media platforms didn’t adequately moderate harmful content during recent riots in France, European Commissioner Thierry Breton said.
“Social media didn’t do enough,” Breton said in an interview Monday on France Info radio, naming apps from Snap Inc. and TikTok Inc. in particular. Representatives for the two companies didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg requests for comment.
French cities were hit with violence and looting in the days after police fatally shot a teenager on June 27 and video footage of the fallout was spread widely on social media. President Emmanuel Macron blamed the content for encouraging the unrest among young people and exacerbating the riots.
From Aug 25, European law will allow fines and suspensions of platforms that don’t comply with rules requiring them to remove "content that is hateful, that calls to revolt and to kill,” Breton said in the radio interview, referring to the EU’s Digital Services Act, which gives governments more power to force large tech companies to take down illegal content. "If they don’t do it they will be sanctioned immediately.”
Interventions by authorities against the platforms "will be extremely fast,” he said. "Platforms will have to show us that they are in a position to apply the law.”
Meta Platforms Inc chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has hired an additional 1,000 people to moderate content, Breton said. The commissioner said in the interview that it would be "good policy” for Meta to check that the company’s new Threads app is in compliance with EU law before launching in the bloc. – Bloomberg
