French official threatens to sue social media users who share burkini ban photos

An official in Nice, France, is threatening to sue social media users who share photos and videos of police enforcing a new burkini ban, claiming the photos led to defamation and threats against the officers.

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Christian Estrosi, president of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (of which Nice is a part), issued a statement, saying, "Already, complaints were filed to prosecute those who spread the photographs of our municipal police officers and those uttering threats against them on social networks."

One incident in particular -- which occurred in Nice -- has sparked controversy and, it seems, Estrossi's statement. Photos of the incident show police forcing a woman to removed her burkini and then issuing her a fine. The pictures were published in The Daily Mail and circulated widely on social media.

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Nice is one of several cities in France that has recently enacted the ban of the burkini, a full-body wetsuit garment for Muslim women, often worn at the beach. The ban carries extra heft in Nice in the wake of the Bastille Day terror attack, which killed 85 people.

Nice's deputy mayor, Rudy Salles, called the ban "a necessity" in light of the terror attack.

A posting of the bylaw forbidding women to wear the burkini at the beach in Nice. Credit: JEAN CHRISTOPHE MAGNENET/AFP/Getty Images

But others have criticized the ban. Talking to Mashable earlier this week about the ban, Fiyaz Mughal, founder of Tell Mama UK, a national project which records anti-Muslim incidents in the UK, called the ban "perverse" and added, "[the ban] does not have any evidence behind it and it's simply knee-jerk populism meant to play on the fears of some."