[martius]

I have zero sympathy for Macron, but the article seems to miss an important aspect: it was mentioned in front of ~200 mayors of cities where the riots are happening.

I believe he said this to satisfy his audience, and maybe to try to put pressure on social media so that they cooperate with authorities (to identify leaders and/or limit coordination between rioters).

It's bad because he's still pushing the overton window to the right, pretending this is OK for a the leader of a democracy to consider this. But I don't think they are seriously thinking about cutting social media.

[hinata08]

they had already blocked Telegram for a day "by mistake", just last month

and the code of the page that said it was blocked showed they were gathering details about users. They are not allowed to gather these details even for lawfully blocked websites (terrorism and child abuse). But they did it for Telegram.

[thomond]

> I believe he said this to satisfy his audience

So Macron being Macron.

[dylan604]

So a politician being a politician.

[mytailorisrich]

Those riots were indefensible and the state actually went very softly on them partly not to throw oil on the fire.

There is nothing authoritarian or 'right wing' in suggesting that limiting communication means of rioters, looters, and, frankly violent thugs, should maybe be considered. Rioting is not a human right, neither is communicating to organise violence and looting.

In fact, I believe that there are plans to cut mobile networks in some situations like terrorist attacks. Frankly what has just happened is getting close to that territory.

IMHO the events and the reactions are worrying and show that French society is now as dangerously divided as what we've seen in the US for instance in relation to the 6th January events.

[makeitdouble]

For context, France has seen a constant wave of strikes and demonstrations for months and months now, with people getting beat to death, going blind, dying of gases etc. and the government not moving an inch. and doing almost nothing regarding police violence.

So sure, rioters are going overboard, but expecting pacific demonstrations at this point is kind of a lost cause.