We monitor content and remove videos that incite violence

After French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks, Snapchat officials said that the app monitors content in France and removes clips that incite violence.

Snapchat officials added that they do not tolerate content that incites hate or violence in France.

Young people protesting against the killing of the boy, Nael, communicate with each other constantly via their mobile phones through several applications, most notably Snapchat, and are distributed in different parts of French cities.

Social media circulates scenes of what these young men are doing, about whom Macron said, “Some of them apply in the street what they live in the video games that poisoned them.”

The French President pointed the finger of accusation, in particular, at the Snapchat and TikTok platforms, where “violent rallies” are organized, considering that these two platforms “also provoke a form of simulating violence, which leads among the younger to a form of exit from reality.”

His killing inflamed the popular neighborhoods

The funeral of the young man, Nael Al-Marzouki, took place, on Saturday, in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre, after his killing inflamed popular neighborhoods and drew attention to France. Acquaintances described him as a “quiet boy,” but his short life was not without his clash with law enforcement, as many suburbanites do.

The boy loved rap music and motorcycles, and his mother raised him alone in Nanterre, west of the capital, Paris.

He lived in an apartment in the Pablo Picasso neighborhood in the Ladefense region, and there the first protests erupted on Tuesday, shortly after he was killed by a bullet in the chest fired by a policeman during a traffic check, while he was driving a rented car.

During a peaceful march Thursday to protest his killing, his name was chanted by thousands of people who saw his tragic fate as a symbol of the unfair treatment of the French police towards a group of young people.

Salha, 65, who lives in the same neighborhood, said, “Nael was a quiet boy. Indeed, he committed violations, but does that justify his killing?”

During the march, which ended in violence, demonstrators chanted, “Nael is the son of all of us.”

His mother, Monia, described him as her “best friend,” and the mother, who refused to hold the entire police force responsible for his killing, added, “He was everything to me.”

“I don’t blame the police, I blame one person: the person who killed my son,” she added.

“not a criminal”

His death reverberated far beyond France’s borders, especially in Algeria, where his family came from.

The Algerian Foreign Ministry expressed “shock and indignation”, stressing that Nael is one of the “members of her community” whom France must provide “protection”.

The young man was also very close to his maternal grandmother, and, according to the family’s lawyer, worked as a goods delivery clerk.

He also started an “integration course” in the “Ovale Setoiane” association, which accompanies young people in the field of sports and establishes a partnership with the Nanterre Rugby Club.

Nael has a clean criminal record, but he ran into some problems with law enforcement for refusing to comply, according to the Nanterre public prosecutor, who said he was due to appear in juvenile court in September.

The authorities confirmed that his dangerous driving on Tuesday justified the traffic check that ended in his death.

“For me, Nael is the typical example of the son of the popular neighborhood, he dropped out of school, a sharp personality at times, but he is not a criminal, and he had the will to get out of this situation,” said Jeff Boesch, president of the “Oval Setwayan” association, in an article in the “Quotidien Doist” newspaper.

The association confirmed on Twitter that it was “in the process of building a new future”.

A month before his death, Nael fulfilled the dream of many young men. He appeared as a guest in a music video filmed in Nanterre by French rap star Jules.

Like other athletes and rappers, Jules shared on social networks a call to help Nael’s family financially, in memory of this “little brother”.