French MPs are calling on President Emmanuel Macron to ban TikTok over concerns of China’s influence on youth.
This comes days after the government blamed the platform for fueling widespread riots that left hundreds of officers hurt and are estimated to have caused more than $1 billion in damages.
The French Senate Committee of Inquiry released a 183-page report warning of the health and psychological impact of TikTok’s “extremely addictive algorithm” on French youth.
After months of grilling TikTok executives during an investigation into the app’s alleged “exploitation of data, its strategy of influence, propaganda and disinformation,” the French senators listed 21 recommendations in the report.
They included expanding the ban on TikTok from solely the phones of French civil servants to also employees holding positions of “vital importance” in organizations including in France’s military, energy, finance, transportation and water-management sectors. The report also raised the possibility of time restraints for young TikTok users in France similar to China’s own restrictions on Douyin, the version of TikTok available in the Chinese mainland, French outlet BFM-TV reported.
France has seen some of its worst rioting in decades, prompted by the June 27 death of Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old of Algeria-Morocco descent, who was shot and killed by a 38-year-old motorcycle officer during a traffic stop in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris.
In all, more than 3,600 people have been detained in the unrest across France, with the average age of detainees being 17, France’s Interior Ministry said.
On Friday, Macron accused social media – namely TikTok and SnapChat – of playing a “considerable role” in encouraging copycat acts of violence. Prosecutors have alleged many of the young people charged in the riots acquired information on where to obtain incendiary devices from social media.
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The violence, which left more than 800 law enforcement officers injured, has largely subsided in recent days, but officials said the unrest has caused more than $1 billion in damages.
The Times of London reported that a fund for the officer involved in Merzouk’s death that was set up by a TV pundit has garnered more than $1 million as of the start of this week.
The senators also demanded TikTok come clean about shareholding by its parent company ByteDance, as well as its “Clover Project” to store European user data on European soil.
“ByteDance and TikTok are dependent on China on every level: technical, capital, political and legal,” Sen. Claude Malhuret, said, according to Politico. “We’re under the impression there’s a real clash between TikTok’s and its managers’ protests about transparency and a clearly intended opacity.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
