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The french "interior ministry" lied about cycling on twitter, saying you weren't allow to go out for your daily 1h by bike. The law never said that. All the newspapers relayed this lie without checking this fact.

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To be fair, some newspapers did checked the information (like Libération's fact-checking service, CheckNews.fr – so did NextINpact, that are quite specialised in those kind of governement overreach), but it wasn't clear if that kind of decision was part of a reasonable interpretation of the law by the minister.

The Conseil d’État clarified that it wasn't.

then one can expect that the population also believed it and social pressure enacted it?

it's more like the police actually gave fines for it, and fighting a fine is a hassle. (in particular now, I don't think really can, probably have to wait fo re-opening).

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