The press release is fake. Despite the violence in Paris, the French government has not ordered total or partial internet shutdowns.
Riots started in Nanterre, a suburb of France’s Paris, after the police reportedly fatally shot a 17-year-old boy named Nahel during a traffic stop. As many as 40,000 police personnel and riot officers have been deployed across Paris to quell the protests, for over 700 protestors have been arrested. President Emmanuel Macron held a meeting on July 3 with members of parliament and a second one is scheduled for July 4 regarding the current unrest in France.
In this backdrop, a press release, allegedly issued by France’s Ministry of the Interior discussing the ongoing protests in the country’s capital city of Paris, has gone viral on social media. It says that internet services will be temporarily suspended from 3 July during night hours in certain areas to “prevent misuse of social media and online platforms to coordinate illegal actions and incite violence.”
The caption of the post states “Right on cue. France is planning a shutdown of the nation’s internet in an attempt to stop the world from seeing what invaders are doing to the nation.
In just the span of a few days, France has devolved into a Middle Eastern nation engulphed in war with its despot limiting news from reaching the outside world.
Elon completely shutting down 450 million Twitter users to punish a few “scrapers” from copying Twitter posts. Just a coincidence that it happens right after Macron demanded all social media companies to stop sharing videos of race riots going on in France”.
Fact Check
We looked for official communication regarding internet shutdowns in France on the French government‘s websites, but could not able to find any such releases. The press release was attributed to the Direction Générale de la Police Nationale, which can be translated to English as the Directorate General of the National Police. The National Police’s website and official Twitter account, too, had no notifications on cutting off internet services in the country.
In further search we found the official Twitter account of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs tweeted out a clarification on July 3, 2022, regarding the viral circular, dismissing it as fake news.
Conclusion-
Fact Crescendo found that the claim made along with the viral image was False. The French government has not imposed complete or partial internet shutdowns in France amid the violence in Paris.
Title:No, France has not announced an internet shut down amid the violence in Paris
Written By: Usha Manoj
Result: False
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