Social Media Shutdown: Senate Considers One-Hour Removal, Crypto Anti-Censorship on Alert

One hour to comply, or face a shutdown. The Senate will examine an amendment submitted by the government on Tuesday, October 27, starting at 4:30 PM. Without going through a judge, the administration could demand the removal of content calling for insurrection within one hour. Failing that, the platform would be blocked and delisted.

This text comes just after another revelation. According to media outlet Blast, Sébastien Lecornu wrote to Orange, SFR, Free, and Bouygues Telecom on October 22. He asked them to prepare for a shutdown of social media platforms TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat during the protests on October 24. No network was shut down on Saturday. With the law concerning those under 15 years old awaiting its second version, these three issues raise the same question for any wallet holder: who controls what circulates on a network?

Key Points

• Matignon has prepared a DNS filtering of major platforms without citing any legal basis.
• No one activated a shutdown during the mobilization on October 24.
• A government amendment aims for the removal of calls for insurrection within one hour, under threat of blockage.
• The Wise Men rejected in August the ban on those under 15 years old.
• Jack Dorsey's internet-free messaging service benefited from the panic.

Social Media Shutdown After the Chaos of October 17

It all started on October 17. On 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 student movement.

The day turned chaotic in more than twenty cities. At least 1,500 stores were looted, the town hall of Limoges was set on fire, nearly 1,000 law enforcement officers were injured, and almost 2,400 arrests were made, according to the tally compiled by Maire-info. On the same day, a wave of cyberattacks affected 9 million people in France.

Laurent Nuñez submitted his resignation. Emmanuel Macron refused it.

On October 19, Gabriel Attal proposed a "temporary, targeted" shutdown of networks in riot-affected areas. Two days later, the Minister of the Interior mentioned before the Senate a suspension in case of significant looting.

Matignon's Letter to Telecom Operators

Then comes the letter of October 22, revealed by Blast and detailed by Clubic. Signed by the Prime Minister, it asks the four operators for a DNS filtering (the system that translates a website name into an address) capable of blocking TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat "without delay" and for "a few hours." The letter primarily targets 4G and 5G mobile networks and requests to spare fiber optics as much as possible. Matignon reportedly added X to the list afterward.

Exclusive information from Blast: the Prime Minister prepared the shutdown of social media for October 24

Two days before the October 24 protest, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu asked Orange, SFR, Free, and Bouygues Telecom to be ready to cut...
--- BLAST, The Breath of Information (@blast_france) October 24, 2026

Matignon accuses these platforms of having served as "levers for operational coordination of violence." The letter cites no legal basis.

The operators are dragging their feet. During a 70-minute video conference on October 23, their lawyers explained that a shutdown limited to certain areas is unfeasible in the short term and that a simple VPN is enough to bypass it. Orange demands an official decree published in the Official Journal rather than a discreet instruction.

On October 24, the mobilization gathered about 400,000 people according to the ministry, 800,000 according to the CGT. It took place peacefully, and no one touched the switch. The previous Caledonian incident weighs heavily. On April 1, 2025, the Council of State ruled the shutdown of TikTok decided in New Caledonia in May 2024 as illegal.

One-Hour Removal to Bypass the Judge

Due to a lack of a break, the government is changing its tool. On Monday, October 26, it submitted an amendment to the bill << vandals-pay >> regarding the compensation for damages caused during violence, which will be examined in the Senate starting at 4:30 PM this Tuesday.

The text first extends the Pharos procedure. This already allows for the removal of terrorist content within 24 hours without a judge. It would now cover direct provocation to harm individuals, theft, and degradation, as soon as a << serious disturbance to public order >> is at stake.

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

The one-hour deadline already exists in European law, through the TCO regulation of 2021, but only for terrorism. The Constitutional Council had indeed censored in 2020 the one-hour removal stipulated by the Avia law against online hate.

The Return of the Social Media Ban for Under 15s

The third issue is older. Parliament definitively adopted on July 21, 2026 the law proposed by MP Laure Miller banning social media for those under 15. It was to apply to new accounts starting September 1.

On August 14, the Constitutional Council censored its Article 1, which contained the entire ban. In its decision n° 2026-911 DC, it deemed this general ban neither << adapted >> nor << proportionate >>, failing to distinguish services according to their risks and lacking a mechanism allowing parents to relax the rule.

Another passage should interest the crypto community. The Sages note that the ban implies that << anyone, even adults >> must prove their age, without any legal guarantee. Age verification then becomes a generalized identity check at the entrance of platforms.

Emmanuel Macron has asked Sébastien Lecornu for a new << legally robust >> draft. According to Toute l'Europe, the new text is expected before spring 2027. Brussels is advancing in parallel with the EU Kids Act, presented on September 17, which provides for a ban before age 13 and parental control between ages 13 and 15.

Why Social Media Cuts Concern Crypto

Le Journal du Coin reported as early as October 23: on the same day as the letter, Bitchat became number one on social media in the French App Store. Jack Dorsey's messaging app was ahead of Telegram and Signal.

It operates without an account or central server and relays messages from phone to phone via Bluetooth. Most importantly, it switches to Nostr as soon as the Internet returns, and this is where crypto comes into play.

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

Bitcoin Facing Administrative Blocking

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

The opposing argument holds water. Rioters did coordinate part of the looting on October 17 on these platforms, and an anti-censorship tool serves both the protester and the rioter. Bitchat did not receive any external security audit at its launch, as admitted by Jack Dorsey himself. Its public rooms remain accessible to all users within range, and Frandroid noted that the connection dropped as soon as 20 to 30 meters behind two concrete walls.

The Senate is examining the amendment on withdrawal within an hour this Tuesday, October 27. Upcoming mobilization days are announced for October 31 and November 5. On Google Play, Bitchat has already surpassed one million downloads worldwide.