Social media shutdown: Senate examines withdrawal in one hour, anti-censorship crypto on alert

One hour to obey, otherwise blocked. From 4:30 p.m. this Tuesday, October 27, the Senate examines an amendment tabled the day before by the government. Without going through a judge, the administration could demand the removal of content calling for insurrection in one hour. Otherwise, the platform would be blocked and delisted.

This text comes just after another revelation. According to the media Blast, Sébastien Lecornu wrote on October 22 to Orange, SFR, Free and Bouygues Telecom. He asked them to prepare a shutdown of the social networks TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat during the October 24 protests. No networks jumped on Saturday. With the law on under-15s, which is awaiting its second version, these three files ask every wallet holder the same question: who controls what circulates on a network?

Key Points

Matignon has prepared DNS filtering of large platforms without citing any legal basis.

No one activated a blockade during the October 24 mobilization.

A government amendment aims to withdraw calls for insurrection within one hour, under penalty of blocking.

In August, the Sages reversed the ban on children under 15 years old.

Jack Dorsey's Internet-free messaging took advantage of the panic.

Social media shutdown after the chaos of October 17

Everything starts from October 17. That day, between 550,000 and 600,000 people marched according to the Ministry of the Interior, for purchasing power and in support of the high school movement.

The day turns into chaos in more than twenty cities. At least 1,500 stores looted, Limoges town hall burned, nearly 1,000 members of the police injured and almost 2,400 arrests, according to the report compiled by Maire-info. The same day, a wave of cyberattacks affected 9 million people in France.

Laurent Nuñez presents his resignation. Emmanuel Macron refuses it.

On October 19, Gabriel Attal proposed a “temporary, targeted” blocking of networks in the rioting territories. Two days later, the Minister of the Interior raised before the Senate a suspension in the event of significant looting.

Matignon's letter to telecom operators

Then comes the October 22 letter, which Blast revealed and which Clubic detailed. Signed by the Prime Minister, it asks the four operators for DNS filtering (the system which translates a site name into an address) capable of blocking TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat “without delay” and for “a few hours”. The letter targets 4G and 5G mobile networks as a priority and asks to save fiber wherever possible. Matignon would have added X to the list after the fact.

Matignon accuses these platforms of having served as “levers for operational coordination of violence”. The letter does not cite any legal basis.

Operators are dragging their feet. During a 70-minute videoconference on October 23, their lawyers explained that blocking limited to certain areas is unfeasible in the short term and that a simple VPN is enough to circumvent it. Orange is calling for a decree published in the Official Journal rather than a discreet instruction.

On October 24, the mobilization brought together around 400,000 people according to the ministry, 800,000 according to the CGT. It takes place peacefully and no one touches the switch. The Caledonian precedent weighs heavily. On April 1, 2025, the Council of State ruled that the blocking of TikTok decided in New Caledonia in May 2024 was illegal.

A withdrawal in one hour to bypass the judge

In the absence of a cut, the government changes tools. Monday, October 26, he tabled an amendment to the “break-the-payers” bill on compensation for damage caused during the violence, examined in the Senate from 4:30 p.m. this Tuesday.

The text first extends the Pharos procedure. This already makes it possible to demand the removal of terrorist content within 24 hours without a judge. It would now cover direct provocation of attacks on persons, theft and damage, as soon as a “serious disturbance of public order” is at stake.

The second part goes further. The administration could demand within an hour the removal of content calling for insurrection, an attack or arming against the state. If the platform does not run, the site is blocked and dereferenced.

The one-hour time limit already exists in European law, via the 2021 TCO regulation, but only for terrorism. The Constitutional Council had also censored in 2020 the one-hour withdrawal provided for by the Avia law against online hatred.

The return of the ban on social networks for under 15s

The third file is older. On July 21, 2026, Parliament definitively adopted MP Laure Miller's law banning social networks for under 15s. It was to apply to new accounts from September 1.

On August 14, the Constitutional Council censored its article 1, the one which contained the entire ban. In its decision no. 2026-911 DC, it considers this general ban neither “adapted” nor “proportionate”, due to failure to distinguish services according to their risks and lack of a mechanism allowing parents to relax the rule.

Another passage should interest cryptos. The Sages note that the ban implies that “any person, even an adult” proves their age, without any legal guarantee. Age verification then becomes a generalized identity check when entering platforms.

Emmanuel Macron asked Sébastien Lecornu for a new “legally robust” copy. According to All Europe, the new text is expected before spring 2027. Brussels is moving forward in parallel with the EU Kids Act, presented on September 17, which provides for a ban before the age of 13 and parental control between 13 and 15 years of age.

Why the social media shutdown concerns crypto

Le Journal du Coin reported it on October 23: the same day of the letter, Bitchat became number one of social networks on the French App Store. Jack Dorsey's messaging system was then ahead of Telegram and Signal.

It does without an account or a central server and relays messages from phone to phone via Bluetooth. Above all, it switches to Nostr as soon as the Internet comes back, and that's where crypto comes into play.

Nostr is a decentralized publishing protocol, very popular among bitcoiners, where no single server can erase an account. DNS filtering has no effect on a message that passes from pocket to pocket. The Nepalese experienced it in September 2025, the Iranians and Ugandans in January 2026, during Internet shutdowns.

Bitcoin facing administrative blockage

The parallel with Bitcoin is obvious. Satoshi Nakamoto designed it so that no intermediary could block a payment, and it was precisely intermediaries, the operators, that the State contacted. In France, the AMF can already block the sites of unauthorized crypto providers. A quick administrative blocking procedure, once created for social networks, is a tool that can be reused.

The argument on the other hand, however, holds up. The thugs well coordinated some of the October 17 looting on these platforms, and an anti-censorship tool serves both the demonstrator and the thug. Bitchat did not receive any external security audit when it was launched, according to Jack Dorsey's own admission. Its public rooms remain readable by all users within range, and Frandroid has seen the connection drop out from 20 to 30 meters behind two concrete walls.