Here is a summary of the article:
• French President Emmanuel Macron has said the government should have the power to control social media networks during periods of unrest.
• Macron made the comments during an interview with a French TV station. He was referring to recent protests in France against the government’s cost of living policies.
• Macron said during periods of crisis, the government needs the power to “block content that goes against republican values and is clearly creating confusion and putting people’s lives at risk.”
• Critics say Macron’s call for more government control of social media raises concerns about censorship and freedom of speech.
• Opposition politicians accused Macron of attacking fundamental French freedoms and wanting to restrict the free flow of information.
• Macron countered that social media networks are already heavily regulated in France over issues like hate speech and terrorist propaganda. He argued the government needed similar powers during unrest.
Same way Iran China Russia etc do it. Put up a Great Firewall, block all the people not protesting anything from accessing their psychosis generating social media sites, meanwhile the protesters all figure out how to work around it. The benefit to the government is that it pisses off the non-participants and makes it easier for the government to crush dissent.
So block everything and not just ‘social media’. That’s more my point
That sounds difficult. They would have to make a lot of exceptions in order to not shut down their economy. I’ve worked in China. Every foreign corporate building had a vpn allowed through the firewall, all the chinese workers had access to the global internet. It was a giant gushing hole. I think I asked and my chinese colleagues said that lots of chines tech companies also had global access. Now of course I also assume that the Chinese government monitored all the leaks, as they monitor everything else, as do we.