French MPs back bill giving online platforms 24 hours to remove hate speech

Social media sites that fail to comply with the law risk fines of up to €1.25 million.

French Member of Parliament of the La Republique En Marche party Laetitia Avia speaks during a session at the French National Assembly in Paris on July 3, 2019.

French MPs on July 4 backed a bill giving online platforms just 24 hours to remove hate speech or face hefty fines, the latest initiative in Europe to tackle online racism, anti-Semitism, sexism and homophobia.

Members of the lower house of parliament voted by 31 in favour to six against adopting the bill tabled by President Emmanuel Macron’s party, which is modelled on a similar German law. Four MPs abstained.

Social media sites that fail to comply with the law risk fines of up to €1.25 million ($1.4 million).

“We should not tolerate on the internet what we do not tolerate on the street,” Laetitia Avia, the Afro-French MP who drafted the bill, told parliament on July 3, adding that she herself could no longer bear being racially abused by social media trolls.

Critics say the law places too much power in the platforms’ hands by making them arbiters of online speech.

MPs debated the bill late into the night Wednesday to try to agree on what constitutes “obviously hateful” messages or videos.

A general view of a session at the French National Assembly in Paris on July 3, 2019.

 

They agreed to include condoning crimes against humanity, but not hateful comments about the state of Israel.