French Social Media Law Is Another Coronavirus Blow To Freedom Of Speech

As the coronavirus takes its 27,000th victim in France, the French parliament has passed a new law that forces social networks to remove certain hateful and illegal content within 24 hours. Signed into law yesterday, the "Lutte contre la haine sur internet" act requires digital platforms to remove discriminatory and sexually abusive comments within 24 hours of being flagged by users.

At the same time, networks have to remove content related to terrorism and child pornography within an hour of flagging. Failure to comply with the law will result in a fine of up to €1.25 million.

This will come as welcome news to victims of online hate speech. However, France’s social media law presents a very real danger to freedom of speech. What’s more, it seems as though the French government and the Assemblée Nationale has exploited fear over online coronavirus misinformation to pass it.

A very similar law was passed in Germany in 2018. Then, similar fears surrounding freedom of speech and censorship were aired, with critics claiming that the German law–dubbed the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG)–delegates too much responsibility for deciding what is legitimate free speech to tech companies.

As the Germany Director at Human Rights Watch, Wenzel Michalski, said at the time:

“It is vague, overbroad, and turns private companies into overzealous censors to avoid steep fines, leaving users with no judicial oversight or right to appeal.”

As with the German law, one of the flaws of the new French act is that there are no penalties if social media networks wrongly remove content that is later found not to be in violation of any laws or community guidelines. Take together with the threat of fines for not removing ‘hateful’ content, this will almost inevitably mean that legitimate freedom of expression will be curtailed.

SOURCE