Force publishers and hosts to remove terrorist content within an hour. This is the main contribution of this LREM bill, voted on Tuesday, July 12 by the Senate in the first reading.

The bill also provides for an authorized personality from Arcom (Audiovisual and Digital Communications Regulatory Authority) to examine a content removal request from another European Union (EU) Member State.

financial sanctions

The refusal to comply with the removal of this content is sanctioned with a year in prison and a fine ranging from 250,000 euros to 4% of the turnover of the digital platform in question for the most serious cases.

The senators approved the text with a dozen amendments that provide clarifications or additions. In particular, they “wanted to reinforce consistency” between the new provisions and the office that manages the Pharos online reporting platform by instituting the “supervision” of the latter by the qualified personality of Arcom, François-Noël told AFP Buffet, LR Chairman of the Law Commission.

Also, against the advice of the government, they provided for an appeal procedure before the Council of State.

Transposition of European law

The bill thus amended was voted on very broadly, but the majority communist group CRCE voted against it and the environmental group abstained, expressing concern about possible attacks on freedom of expression.

Deputies -recently elected- and senators will now try to agree on a common version in a joint joint commission, the last word will have the National Assembly in case of failure.

The proposal had been approved in first reading by the National Assembly in February, during the previous legislature. It partly takes up one of the key provisions of the Avia law that had been widely questioned by the Constitutional Council in July 2020.

This bill aims to transpose into French law the provisions of the European regulation of April 29, 2021 against the dissemination of terrorist content online. This text is in force from June 7 throughout the EU. At this stage, only nine Member States have implemented this regulation in their national law, according to rapporteur André Reichardt (LR).