France riots: Killed teen's name shared almost half a million times as protests surge
The French president hit out at social media companies, accusing their platforms of playing a role in inflaming the violence and disruption taking place across the country.
Saturday 1 July 2023 12:30, UK
The hashtag bearing the name of the French teenager who was killed during a traffic stop in a Paris suburb has been shared over 470,000 times across Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.
Sky News analysis of French social media using the social-listening platform TalkWalker found that, at its peak, #Nahel was shared over 27,000 times in just one hour.
Social media companies have come under scrutiny from French President Macron which he said have played "a considerable role in the movements of the last few days".
Much of the social media content showing the riots has depicted the violent unrest taking place in locations across France. Some of the most shared clips show clashes between rioters and police, burning buildings and the looting of shops and businesses.
Sky News has verified over 30 locations where violence has taken place, with unrest spreading throughout the country and even spilling into Belgium.
The violence erupted on Tuesday after news emerged that the 17-year-old, Nahel M had been fatally shot by police during a traffic stop in Nanterre.
Some of the most dramatic footage emerging from Paris was captured in the suburb of Sevran, northeast of the city centre and around 20 miles from Nanterre.
This clip shows a large fire at the Beau Sevran shopping centre, which was looted and set ablaze by rioters on Thursday night according to local reports.
The violence has also spread to Paris's city centre.
Footage taken in Paris's Chatelet area shows a large group of people breaking the glass windows of a Nike store. According to local authorities, over 400 people were arrested in Paris and its suburbs overnight on Thursday.
The disorder has not been confined to the capital. Unrest has been reported across France and has even spilled into neighbouring Belgium.
Sky News has verified over 30 different locations where violence, with some of the key locations shown in the map below.
Police say they have made arrests in cities across the country. In Marseille, 56 people were arrested for their role in the violence while 58 were detained in France's northernmost region of Hauts de France. In the southern city of Toulouse, 13 arrests were made.
In Nantes, footage of a car being used to ram into the window of a Lidl in the city's Bellevue district went viral on Thursday night.
As well as videos, a number of hashtags have also gone viral in the wake of Nahel's death.
The hashtag bearing his name was posted 279.1 thousand times on Thursday alone, according to Sky News analysis using the social listening platform TalkWalker.
As of 5pm on Friday, #Nanterre was posted over 1.5 million times across Twitter, TikTok and YouTube in France. This compares to just 137 times during the same week previously.
The French word for "riots" has also become a popular hashtag in the days since the unrest broke out. #Emeutes has been shared a million times since Tuesday.
Read more:
Eyewitness: Grief and shock on the street as France braced for more violence
France to suspend bus and tram services
The French president said on Friday that social media platforms have played "a considerable role in the movements of the last few days".
Mr Macron added: "We have seen on several of them, Snapchat, TikTok, and several others at the same time, the organisation of violent gatherings."
He later proposed restrictions on the use of social media, while urging parents to keep their teenagers at home as the country braces for more violence at the weekend.
A spokesperson for Snapchat told Sky News: "Violence has devastating consequences and we have zero tolerance for content that promotes or incites hatred or violent behavior on any part of Snapchat."
They added: "When we find this type of content - either through proactive detection or when it's reported to us - we remove it and take appropriate action."
Snapchat says it is continually reviewing content related to the French riots and removing any videos that violate their
Sky News has written to TikTok for comment.
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