Macron says ‘social media is damaging our democracies’

President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that social media was “damaging our democracies” as France struggled to contain weeks of protests marked by street violence and looting.

He said on a visit to Marseille that social media was especially used during unrest on October 17 “to bring young and not-so-young people to places where criminal acts, attacks and looting were taking place”. He described social media as “tools for mobilising the worst impulses”.