The video from Ile-de-France, which kept circulating even after a request to take it down, showed a violent scene that was reported by multiple online users.

France’s government has targeted Twitter in the wake of mass online hysteria after footage of two allegedly black teenage boys apparently raping a young girl emerged and was widely shared on Twitter and Snapchat.

#Signalement 🛑 Vous nous avez signalé sur la MP une vidéo d'un acte sexuel qui semble être commis sous la contrainte et la menace.

➡️ #Pharos investigue pour identifier les auteurs de cet acte et de cette vidéo.

✅ Ne relayez pas cette vidéo.https://t.co/7rn0Mb6BV2 pic.twitter.com/lEE5stvbdt — Gendarmerie de l'Essonne (@Gendarmerie_091) December 20, 2019

I will save my tears for this poor girl, allegedly raped live on Twitter by two new "French" arrivals...

So idyllic...https://t.co/3Sdba3SiMO — Cultural Diversity (@Diversity_Joys) December 23, 2019

Thanks to user reports, the two 16-year-old boys featured in the video were promptly identified and arrested in Essonne in the suburbs of Paris, with Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa telling Le Parisien that she had demanded that Twitter remove the video.

🇫🇷 #Essonne Grâce à la mobilisation des internautes, les auteurs du viol collectif ayant diffusé leur forfait dans une vidéo devenue virale ont été rapidement identifiés et interpellés. Les enquêtes 2.0, décriées par certains, portent incontestablement leurs fruits. — Sébastien JALLAMION (@SJallamion) December 21, 2019

However, she ascertained that the social network was initially “not up to par”, adding that culprits are well aware of it and that’s why “they use it”.

The now deleted minute-long video showed the girl being insulted with strong words and blatantly threatened before she was attacked and reportedly raped in a stairwell.

France's National Police said on Friday evening that many Twitter users had alerted them to it, with officers asking netizens not to distribute it further. “Thank you for your mobilisation. Thank you for not passing on this video”, the Essonne police pointed out.

An investigation into the incident is currently in full swing.

French legislators are meanwhile considering placing a permanent ban on accounts that are “dedicated to posting this type of content”. According to existing rules, Twitter users that share such content are “required to remove” it, but are not necessarily banned from the social network.