In an amendment to a French draft law to regulate the digital space, centre-right senator Patrick Chaize proposed on Monday (3 July) that in the face of riots threatening public order, hateful online content should be blocked within two hours after being posted.
Chaize, who is also the rapporteur for a bill for securing and regulating the digital space, tabled the amendment just before the start of the debates in the Senate on Tuesday, after France had been rocked by violent protests for a week, triggered by the police killing of a teenager of North African origin.
His intention is to provide law enforcement with the means to respond to the rapid mobilisation of rioters who communicate through social media.
The senator, a member of Les Républicains (EPP), also specifically mentioned that the police officers he has spoken to have trouble mobilising quickly enough against the “mobility of the rioters.” By communicating through social media, rioters gather more rapidly than law enforcement.
The Minister of Digital Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot and the Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin met with representatives from Twitter, Snapchat, Meta, and TikTok on Friday (30 June) to remind them of their “responsibility” in the proliferation of hatred messages and to ask them to take them down as quickly as possible.
Chaize’s suggested text reads: “When riots are observed” that threaten public order or aim to destroy public buildings, prefects should be able to issue an order to social media platforms “to remove or block access to the content within a two-hour timeframe.”
Considering the riots that have been shaking the country following the death of teenager Nahel M., Chaize told EURACTIV that he “would have felt like he had done a poor job” if he had not included an amendment addressing the issues faced by law enforcement in recent days.
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Chaize believes that the proposed amendment addresses the encountered problems while staying within the constitutional limits.
He explained that some of his constituents have asked him to proceed with the restrictions and have specifically mentioned that coded language could circumvent the obstruction.
Such a consideration would lead to “advocating for shutting down social media,” according to the senator, which he believes would be unconstitutional.
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Stéphane Vojetta, a member of the French Parliament affiliated with President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party (Renew Europe), dismissed Chaize’s amendment as a somewhat “symbolic” gesture when questioned by EURACTIV on the matter.
According to Vojetta, the proposal would be inconsistent with the EU Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to act ‘expeditiously’ as soon as they become aware of illegal content but does not specify a precise timeline.
Catherine Morin-Desailly, a senator from the liberal Centrist Union, told EURACTIV she was convinced the problem lies within social media platforms’ business models themselves.
These platforms gain revenues by “amplifying the most controversial statements through algorithms attracted to sensational content because they generate clicks.”
Furthermore, she mentioned foreign “troll farms” that artificially boost the visibility of certain content with a clear objective of “destabilising our democracy.”
According to her, the bill for securing the digital space and the DSA are “just steps” that do not change anything about the platforms’ economic models, which she believes should be changed.
TikTok and Meta (the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram) did not react to EURACTIV’s request for comment by the time of publication.
[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Zoran Radosavljevic]
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Source: euractiv.com
