Soon the return of the “yellow vests”? Investigation into viral call on social media

Soon the return of the “yellow vests”? On Instagram, TikTok or Facebook, many publications are launching calls to relaunch the 2018 movement and to demonstrate in France on October 17, to protest against the rise in fuel prices. One month before the deadline, Thursday September 17, it is difficult to gauge the extent of the dynamic outside of social networks.

Where does this call come from? One of the first videos to mention the date October 17 comes from a TikTok account. The young man sitting facing the camera justifies this choice by emphasizing that it is a school holiday Saturday, and that “everyone can be there” and available to demonstrate. On the other hand, he does not propose to be the organizer of any demonstration: "You organize the lease [the thing], I don't organize it: you need a guy to do the paperwork."

Seven days after its publication, on September 8, the video has nearly 300,000 “likes” and 30,000 shares. The same day, another Internet user who films himself from a car repeats the date of October 17, adding more general grievances about the price of food.

Many videos ride the trend

The videos sparked many reactions, and many other Internet users joined in on their own. Some stage themselves in front of gas stations, often wearing fluorescent vests, and are outraged by the prices of fuel, which approach 3 euros per liter in certain stations. The tone is sometimes vindictive, sometimes tinged with humor, with the song "Yellow Vest" by Kopp Johnson in the background which resonated in 2018. Most Internet users who publish these videos do not talk about politics or purchasing power in their previous publications and instead offer humorous content or slices of daily life.

In the comments, we regularly find young people, too many to have been able to participate in the movement in 2018. "I was in college and my father took me there every time", "We are old enough now, before we were too little yesss", "I had stars in my eyes", write for example Internet users under this video which has 110,000 "Likes" four days after it was posted online. Many are calling for a mobilization of “generation Z”, like the movements that shook Morocco, Madagascar or Nepal.

It is often difficult to determine the true intentions of the authors of these videos. Is the objective really to call for mobilization, to express anger, or to take advantage of the views that this new “trend” brings? The accounts that relay these calls often gain personal visibility, because publications that play on anger make Internet users react, and are therefore often highlighted by recommendation algorithms.

Questionable claims

These calls to demonstrate are often accompanied by visuals generated by artificial intelligence (AI), to express demands and motivate Internet users. Some are of questionable reliability: a publication shared nearly 6,000 times (made by an Internet user who suggests in another publication that humans have never walked on the Moon) presents a map of gatherings supposedly planned throughout France, without citing sources.

The idea of ​​a demonstration is widely relayed on social networks by anonymous accounts, which present themselves as media and use its visual codes. They often limit themselves to saying that the calls to demonstrate are increasing, thus maintaining the dynamic. Some relay unsourced or even false information, sometimes going so far as to imitate the voices of real journalists, as in this video seen nearly a million times. To franceinfo, the owner of the website linked in the biography of the TikTok account denies any link with this account, which specializes in shocking images.

A call widely relayed by the media themselves

With franceinfo, the social media monitoring company Visibrain affirms that publications on the subject are more numerous than in October 2018, at the start of the “yellow vest” movement. But at present, this call for mobilization is “largely supported by the media ecosystem” which echoes it, according to the company.

The channels used by the historic “yellow vests” are also little involved in this renewed popularity, according to Visibrain. "A few emblematic pages linked to the 'yellow vests' are resurfacing, mainly on Facebook", but "their activity nevertheless remains marginal compared to the overall volume of exchanges, which are today fueled more by media reactions and observation of the movement".

On TikTok, several new accounts proclaim themselves "official account" or "representative" of the movement, or of the "yellow vests" in general, without justifying their legitimacy. Could the yellow vests be reborn? “I would bet that potentially, the yellow vests will not return as they were in 2018,” Jérôme Rodrigues, figure of the 2018 movement, responded to France 2. “On the other hand, a new popular revolt, perhaps even much more amplified than that of the yellow vests,” he predicted.

No real attempts at foreign interference observed

Like any political trend on social networks, calls to demonstrate can be subject to recovery, amplification or even diversion by foreign interference campaigns aimed at destabilizing the country. According to information from franceinfo, however, no significant amplification by known foreign actors has been noted for the moment. Only a few opportunistic covers, with very low audiences, call for participation in the movement.

The emergence of this call to demonstrate is reminiscent of that of the “Let’s block everything” movement of September 10, 2025. The slogan, initiated by anonymous people on social networks, had gained audience, causing embarrassment to the unions. The mobilization brought together between 197,000 and 250,000 people, before a response on September 18, which was not followed by specific political announcements.

Some political support

On the left of the spectrum, in particular, these new calls to demonstrate are supported by certain political leaders. Guest of France 2 on September 11, the national secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, declared that he called on "the French to mobilize, as we were able to do in 2018 with the 'yellow vests'", "on the roundabouts" or "in front of all places of power (...) so that this government acts". The president of the La France insoumise group at the National Assembly, Mathilde Panot, for her part assured on franceinfo on Tuesday that she supported the calls to demonstrate.

On the side of trade union organizations, caution seems in order, as in 2018. Asked on Wednesday about possible support from the CGT, general secretary Sophie Binet insisted on the “recent” nature of the “phenomenon, which emerged five days ago”. This trend is for the moment “difficult to characterize and (…) evolves over time”, she estimated, without commenting at this stage on the support of the CGT. “In any case, what is certain is that we share the demands on the need to block prices and increase wages,” she said.

How do the authorities view this mobilization? Speaking to France 2, a prefect in a rural area confides: "I've been thinking hard since last night. People say that the State and the big multinationals are ripping them off. And that, in my opinion, can be explosive." Another, in an urban area, procrastinates: “I don’t see any particular mobilization yet, but obviously we remain vigilant.”