Last Wednesday night, the French Senate adopted a bill that plans to secure and regulate the Internet. The beginning of this vote took place in a particular context marked by the violence that followed the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old who was killed by a police officer in the city of Nanterre on 27 June.
During the riots, the issue of responsibility and control of social networks was raised given that platforms such as Snapchat and WhatsApp played a role in organizing rioters and spreading violent images.
While the French president is considering “cutting off” social networks in this case, the government says it is ready to work on legislative changes.
And that’s exactly what happened. While examining the “Digital Security” bill before the Senate, Sen. Patrick Chase, the co-rapporteur on the legislative bill, introduced an amendment to require social media platforms to remove content that “clearly incites violence.”
“pull harmful content”
The senator’s amendment, which was withdrawn after warnings by Jean-Noel Barrow, the minister in charge of digital transition and communications, about wording that would risk unconstitutionality, states that “when there are riots or popular movements undermining public order or public security, clearly inciting Violence against persons in public authority, damage to or intrusion into public buildings or facilities, the competent administrative authority may issue takedown orders against any online social networking service to remove or block access content, within two hours of receiving the said injunction.”
Despite the withdrawal of the amendment, the idea did not remain on paper. Jean-Noel Barrow, who is leading this project, pledged to start thinking with the Senate to “find a collective formulation” before review by the National Assembly, because he believes that it is necessary to “find a way for platforms to put Things are in place from the first hour in the face of these phenomena that can fuel riot dynamics.
On the other hand, he stresses that “there is no anonymity on social networks and no one can believe they are safe behind a nickname or an avatar when they are spreading hate and violence on the Internet,” explaining that platforms must respect their legal obligations when content is “illegal” and reported. about him.
Is desired possible?
An expert in social networks, digital uses and extremism via the Internet, Tristan Mandes France, believes in his statement to “Sky News Arabia”, that “a distinction must be made between what is desirable and what is possible.”
He adds, “Some of the information circulating on social platforms is already prohibited by law. The problem is the application of the law to the platforms. I’m not sure that blocking or cutting it is possible compared to our current law, and if it is, it is a concern because the only countries on the planet that block social networks are authoritarian regimes in general.
On the other hand, he explains that “if the DNS (Domain Name System) – a tool used by every smartphone or computer to connect to a specific site – is modified to prevent access to the address list, for example Facebook, then the user will find himself facing a blank page.”
However, it is easy to circumvent these methods, especially through the use of a VPN program that many Internet users use to change their locations and thus, it is possible to avoid the main blocking measures that are implemented on a countrywide basis.
Another solution that the government may resort to, according to the media, is related to “geographical location” of the user. But the social networking expert says responding to this can be difficult because most social networking companies are based in Ireland, and French requests may not be heard.
Minors are waiting for the go-ahead
As for the Law on Restricting Minors’ Access to Social Networking Sites, which was adopted by Parliament on Thursday, June 29, to more strictly regulate the use of social networks by introducing parental authorization for those under 15 years of age. It also allows the owner of the parental authority to request the suspension of the child’s account, which “constitutes, according to Mandes,” a technical problem because the age control will lead to a deep disturbance in the internal system of social platforms, which does not require the submission of “personal identification” for registration. In addition, imposing this matter on the owners of these sites may not appeal to them, and they may prefer to withdraw, as happened with “GBT Chat”, which threatened to withdraw from Italy a few weeks ago.
Until now, the date for the entry into force of this law has not been determined because it is awaiting an opinion to be issued by the European Commission regarding its compliance with European Union law. The social networks will then have one year to comply with the new laws.
According to an investigation published in March 2021, 63% of people under the age of 13 have at least one account on a social network in France.
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