What will remain of the government’s measures related to digital? This summer, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, threatened to repeal the law on influencers and the law on digital majority. From now on, and as revealed by the Contexte media, the European Commission addresses the bill to secure the digital space, adopted by the National Assembly on October 17 and which must now go to the mixed commission. Among the planned measures is the ban on social networks, proposed by the government in the context of online harassment or riots.
Regulation of platforms reserved for Brussels
Once again, the European Commission criticizes the French government for attempting to regulate large online platforms. An issue that, however, cannot be addressed at the national level, in the eyes of Brussels, but only at the European level.
“The notified bill falls within the scope of application of the DSA,” states the letter of October 25, referring to the new European regulation of large digital platforms, in force since August 25, 2023. One sentence far away to be innocuous, given the recent statements of Thierry Breton.
“The direct effect of EU regulations makes any national transposition unnecessary […]”Member States should refrain from adopting national legislation that would duplicate these rules or create stricter provisions,” he warned on August 2, 2023, regarding the multiplication of Franco-French laws aimed at regulating digital giants.
Surveillance risk
In the letter cited by Contexte, the European Commission criticizes France in particular for requiring platforms to verify for themselves that an Internet user sentenced by a judge to be excluded from a social network does not attempt to create a new account. In his view, the measure poses a risk of widespread surveillance, by requiring Twitter, Facebook and others to spy on content posted online to identify a convicted individual who would be reported to authorities.
In its letter, the European Commission asks to modify the text, so as not to put this detection imperative on social networks, but on the shoulders of the “administrative authority” (Arcom), which would then be responsible for identifying the accounts. created illegally, before requesting their blocking from the platforms.
The Commission also criticizes France for legislating on majority verification for accessing pornographic sites, despite the existence of similar provisions in the DSA. In fact, in its article 35, the text asks large platforms to “adopt specific measures aimed at protecting the rights of the child, including age verification and parental control tools.”
“The government was stubborn”
“These are detailed observations. This means that, in the eyes of the European Commission, this is a real violation of European law. Furthermore, these observations refer to the initial version of the text, which now goes further, after “, comments Alexandre Archambault, lawyer specialized in digital law, at Tech&Co.
Contacted by Tech&Co, the cabinet of Minister Jean-Noël Barrot assures that “France welcomes the opinion of the commission in response to the notification sent to it in July, which validates the conventionality of the provisions in their entirety, which confirms France’s ability to act to block sites that expose children to pornographic content, requiring some marginal modifications that parliament can make to the text in the joint committee.
A satisfaction that, however, could be very temporary, in the eyes of Alexandre Archambault. “All these problems were identified in spring and notified to the regulator, particularly the Commission. But the government persisted. We believe that we are reviving the scenario of the Avia law (largely censured by the Constitutional Council in June 2020).” believe -him.
Source: BFM TV
