French police have asked the public to avoid revealing the location of road controls set up across the country as part of the state of emergency, introduced after the bombings and shootings in Paris.
In its Twitter appeal, the National Gendarmerie wrote: “#StateofEmergency Controls are taking place all over France. Do not signal the location of police forces.”
An accompanying graphic headed #ParisAttacks said that by giving the position of police forces by flashing headlights, alerts via GPS apps or social media “you may unintentionally help people we are looking for”.
#EtatdUrgence Des contrôles ont lieu partout en France. Ne signalez pas la position des forces de l'ordre #Attentats pic.twitter.com/YstLLtMkLD
— GendarmerieNationale (@Gendarmerie) November 18, 2015
Social media networks including Facebook and Twitter have been practically and psychologically helpful in the wake of the recent attacks. They were useful in appealing for blood donors and for friends and relatives to locate those at the scene of the bloodshed. There was also the hashtag PorteOuverte (open door), where Parisiens offered to put up those stuck in the French capital after the wave of attacks, and others for expressing much-needed solidarity with those caught up in the carnage.
The flipside has been the false rumours of further attacks that have sparked panic and raised fears that too much public information can, as the gendarmerie appeal suggests, help the terrorists.
The French authorities have an uneasy relationship with new and traditional media. In the aftermath of the attacks, journalists and television cameras have been pushed farther and farther back from incidents, particularly when there is likely to be a police or military intervention.
Often this is presented as being for the safety of journalists and news crews, but the authorities, especially the police and rapid intervention units, learned a lesson from the hostage-taking at Hyper Cacher supermarket in January, where four people were killed by Amédy Coulibaly two days after the Charlie Hebdo attack, and where social media could have revealed information to the gunman.
As heavily armed police prepared to storm the store and release customers and staff being held by Coulibaly, television and radio stations, as well as bloggers and witnesses using Facebook and Twitter openly wrote of the imminent assault, knowing the gunman was using social media and had been in touch with journalists from at least one broadcaster.
The French TV station BFMTV is being sued after reporting at the height of the hostage situation at Hyper Cacher that several customers were hiding from the gunman in a storeroom. Those who escaped took legal action claiming journalists recklessly endangered their lives.
