Petition to shut down France's CNews passes 500,000 signatures, opening way to Assembly debate

A petition past the threshold

A petition on the National Assembly website calling for CNews to be removed from French broadcasting passed 500,000 signatures on Monday, 2 November 2026. Later that day, 20minutes put the count above 550,000. The petition was launched in June by a private individual and had fewer than 100,000 digital signatures before the surge in late October. Its introduction calls CNews a propaganda machine, while the channel, part of the Canal+ group in the orbit of billionaire Vincent Bolloré, says it defends freedom of expression. When contacted by AFP, the channel said it would not comment on the petition.

“We will not comment on this political petition.”

What the 500,000 threshold does and does not do

Under the Assembly's rules, a debate in the chamber can be held on a report about a petition signed by more than 500,000 people. A parliamentary committee must first decide whether to classify the petition or examine it, and that decision produces the report. Passing the threshold therefore does not guarantee a debate. A previous petition against the law on the presumed legitimate use of weapons by law enforcement also crossed 500,000 signatures, but members of the Laws committee classified it in July. According to 20minutes, any debate on CNews would take place without a vote and without a decision.

The Trappes attack and the accusations

The surge followed a racist attack in Trappes on 23 October, which killed one man and wounded several people, according to 20minutes. A 39-year-old Frenchman, identified as Kévin T., is suspected of deliberately firing on people whom the national anti-terrorism prosecutor Olivier Christen described as being of Muslim, African or North African type. Left-leaning politicians, including Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh, have accused the media, CNews in particular, of bearing responsibility for the attack. Rabeh argues that the channel gave too much airtime to rhetoric stigmatising immigrants and people of immigrant origin. The main dates in the petition's rise and the attack are shown below.

Regulatory record and reactions

The media regulator Arcom issued CNews a formal notice in June 2026, ordering it to correct a lasting imbalance in how it expressed currents of thought and opinion, notably on the threat it said immigration and Islam posed to French society. Since 2019, Arcom has issued 27 reminders to order against the channel, with cumulative fines of 630,000 euros, according to 20minutes. Reporters Without Borders has called the channel an opinion machine. Complément d'Enquête counted the word immigration 69,353 times on the channel in under four years. According to RTBF, CNews crews were targeted by hostile protesters in the social and student mobilisations of the days before 2 November. The channel has not formally responded to the petition's success, and the question of a debate remains open pending a committee decision.