The scene takes place at the National Assembly, Monday, July 10. When heard, Sarah Bouchahoua, head of public affairs for Snapchat in France, made a disturbing confidence to the few parliamentarians present to listen to her. She said Snapchat has worked hand-in-hand with the Home Office to ensure that only photos and videos critical of the riots and rioters appear on the Snap Map.
“We worked together with the Ministry of the Interior and various authorities to try to stem as quickly as possible the various slippages that we could see on the ground. […] and for once, all the stories published on the map, it was really Snapchat users, in the end, who were complaining about the riots and the consequences of the riotssaid Sarah Bouchahoua. We are proud to have been able to participate and collaborate between the private and the public in order to protect our users as quickly as possible”.
As a reminder, the Snap Map is an interactive map that allows access to the position of our contacts in real time but also to view the content published publicly by ordinary users depending on where they are. The tool – and more broadly social networks – had been singled out by the government, which accused it of having amplified the echo of the unrest following the death of young Nahel. Emmanuel Macron had even mentioned the possibility of “cut off social media”.
Be that as it may, these confessions are surprising. All the more so when we know that Sarah Bouchahoua, before becoming head of public affairs at Snapchat, was a parliamentary collaborator and in charge of the Avia law on digital regulation.