Two teenagers banned from TikTok and Snapchat by French court over video

Two 16-year-olds in France have been placed under judicial control with a ban on using Snapchat and TikTok after a video of them singing rap lyrics outside their school was shared on social media, and they were prosecuted for the public glorification of terrorist acts.

The three teenagers, two aged 16 and one aged 14, were filmed on 1 October in front of the François-Villon secondary school in Beaugency, in the Loiret region, performing a song by the rapper BORO700. The lyrics refer to Mohamed Merah, who murdered a teacher and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012, and to Salah Abdeslam, convicted for his role in the November 2015 attacks. One account of the video says it also referred to the Bataclan and Adolf Hitler.

After the video spread on social media, the Orléans prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation on 6 October. The Republican prosecutor for Orléans, Emmanuelle Bochenek-Puren, said in a statement that the lyrics of the song contained "terms capable of constituting the offence of public glorification of acts of terrorism". The office of the MEP Matthieu Valet had reported the video to prosecutors, according to one report.

Police custody and court measures

The three minors were placed in police custody on 7 October by the territorial gendarmerie brigade of Beaugency, under the summonses issued to them and their parents. Their telephones were seized, and Bochenek-Puren said the first examinations "revealed no other offence".

The teenagers were brought before the Orléans prosecutor's office on 8 October and prosecuted for public glorification of acts of terrorism. Prosecutors requested judicial control with a "digital banishment" from Snapchat and TikTok for the two 16-year-olds, and a provisional judicial educational measure, including a ban on gathering in groups, for the 14-year-old.

The children's judge followed the prosecutors' requests, the Orléans prosecutor's office confirmed on 9 October.

The rapper also facing prosecution

The rapper BORO700, who wrote the song, also faces court proceedings. The Paris prosecutor's office said he will be tried for glorification of terrorism, glorification of a crime against humanity and death threats under conditions on 21 October 2026 before the 17th chamber of the Paris judicial court.

A separate investigation has been opened in the Vendée region after a video was published on social media showing young teenagers playing music "glorifying terrorism" inside a church in Soullans. The diocese of Luçon described the incident in a statement as a "serious attack on a place of worship", and said the teenagers were also singing the BORO700 song.

The wider picture

The measures in Beaugency are among a number of social media court cases and proceedings across Europe and the United States in which platforms and their use by young people are under legal scrutiny. In the United States, social media claims against YouTube, Snap and Meta are set for trial in Los Angeles from 28 October 2026, after TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube settled with a plaintiff in an earlier trial, and on 10 September 2026 a US judge found TikTok liable in a Texas case for deceiving parents about the app's safety, with a separate trial on penalties due the following month. Those social media harm claims are unrelated to the French proceedings.

Anyone affected by the issues in this article can contact Samaritans free on 116 123 or at samaritans.org.