Pornographic sites, “deepfakes”… The Senate embodied, on Tuesday, July 4, the bill to “secure” the internet, whose examination at first reading is impacted by the questioning of social networks in recent acts of violence .
The bill makes it possible to adapt French legislation to the new European regulations DMA (Digital Markets Law) and DSA (Digital Services Law). These impose a battery of new rules on the largest digital players in terms of abuse of dominant position or regulation of problematic content.
But it is also an opportunity to intervene “in the disorders that accumulate in the digital space” and that affect in particular “the most modest French, the elderly” and children, stressed the minister in charge of the digital transition, Jean- Noël Barrot.
In the fight against the access of minors to pornographic sites, the text reinforces the powers entrusted to the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom). According to Arcom, 2.3 million minors visit an “adult” site every month.
The regulatory authority is responsible for developing “a repository” with the technical requirements that age verification systems must meet for access to sites.
You can order the blocking, without a judge’s decision, of pornographic sites that do not verify the age of their visitors.
The Senate has also adopted two provisions formulated by the Senate Delegation for Women’s Rights in its report “Pornography: the hell of decoration”, which seek to impose new limitations on the publishers of pornographic sites. They will “complicate the life of the publishers of pornographic sites, and that is the objective,” said socialist Laurence Rossignol.
“Online contempt crime”
The Senate validated two other key measures in the bill overnight. In the face of multiple scam attempts via email or SMS, the bill establishes a free “anti-scam filter” that sends a warning message to anyone about to enter a site identified as malicious.
The text also provides for a new additional sentence of “banishment” that a judge can pronounce when convicting a person of online hate acts, cyberbullying or other serious crimes.
The senators have expanded the scope of the crimes in question, including threats and intimidation against elected officials.
The Senate approved an amendment by centrist rapporteur Loïc Hervé that creates “an online contempt crime”, punishable by a fixed civil liability (AFD) fine of 300 euros.
The upper house also gave the green light to government amendments that explicitly target “deepfakes” or hypertricks, synthesis techniques that make it possible to create misleading videos or images.
For his part, the rapporteur LR Patrick Chaize withdrew his amendment that proposed being able to force social networks to block access, within two hours, to content that clearly incites violence.
The senator has been in favor of the minister’s proposal to initiate reflection within the framework of a working group, “so that we can find a suitable wording between now and the beginning of the school year.”
“We have to hold them accountable, but if the responsibilities lead them to violate freedom of expression, that means that we have not fully found the appropriate formulas”, stated the minister, while highlighting the amplifying role of social networks in the violence of recent days in France.
The Senate will continue this Wednesday, July 5, the examination of the text.
As for French companies using the cloud, it seeks to regulate certain widespread business practices in the IT services market that disrupt the game of competition.
Among other measures, a single platform is planned to centralize the data related to furnished tourist accommodation for rent in each municipality.
In committee, the senators proposed a first legal definition of games with monetizable digital objects (Jonum), “at the crossroads of leisure games and games of money and chance”, and authorized them on an experimental basis for a period of three years.
Source: BFM TV
