Six major online platforms, including TikTok and eBay, were called to emergency meetings by the French government this week as officials worked to stop widespread violence and block the online sale of stolen merchandise. Anne Le Hananff, France's digital affairs minister, brought together social media company representatives on Tuesday after their services were accused of amplifying the country's most severe civil disorder in years. The gatherings aimed to press platforms on their duty to police content, including live video feeds, to block violent material or posts that might push people to violate an imposed curfew.

More than 1,500 shops and businesses were looted over the weekend as peaceful protests against high living expenses and underfunded public services, including schools, turned into riots. Authorities have taken more than 2,400 people into custody, while Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez acknowledged that police "lost control" in some municipalities as they deployed tear gas, water cannons, and batons. A WIRED examination of TikTok revealed that searching for "blocus"—the French word for blockade—surfaced videos that appeared potentially manipulated or created with artificial intelligence, including widely shared footage of a demonstrator dressed as the Pink Panther. The same search phrase is now being used to organize "Act II" of the demonstrations, scheduled for October 24.

At a separate Monday meeting focused on e-commerce sites, Serge Papin, minister for small and medium-size enterprises, confirmed that "an agreement was signed" targeting the resale of plundered items. According to Le Monde, Vinted, eBay, Amazon, LeBonCoin, Meta, and TikTok attended. The platforms committed to passing reports to investigators, watching for advertisements of goods specifically stolen during the protests, and delivering action reports to the government, with the initial report due within 48 hours, Papin stated. The French Alliance of Marketplaces, a nonprofit representing retailers including Back Market, eBay, Etsy, LeBonCoin, ManoMano, and Vinted, said in a statement that its members are using user reports, human review, and technology systems to track ads reselling stolen riot goods. When a fraudulent listing is found, it's taken down and "measures are taken against the accounts involved," which can include permanent account suspension, eBay noted.

French criminal law allows for a five-year prison term and a €375,000 fine for anyone concealing, holding, or moving property they know came from a crime or offense. Police in the Netherlands issued a warning that online marketplaces could see elevated volumes of stolen merchandise due to the riots. TikTok applied an "evolving situation" label to the "blocus" search term stating that information "may be unverified, incomplete, inaccurate, or subject to change" and urging users to exercise caution and report violations. eBay said the time required to act "depends on the nature of the report and the necessary verification process," while Vinted, Amazon, LeBonCoin, Meta, and TikTok didn't respond to WIRED's request for comment. The coordinated government response reflects mounting pressure on platforms to balance real-time communication with preventing the spread of content that authorities believe directly fuels disorder. As protests evolve into hybrid online-offline events, platforms face difficult choices about when content moderation crosses into censorship and how quickly they can realistically enforce rules at scale.