France: Social media ban overturned again
From September, the use of social media for under-15s was to be banned in France. Now nothing will come of it: The Constitutional Council has declared the law inadmissible.
Just under four weeks ago, the French Parliament approved a social media ban for young people under 15. It was supposed to come into effect on September 1st – traditionally the first day of school in France. However, this will now not happen. The French Constitutional Council has stopped the ban.
Disproportionate interference with freedom of expression
The social media ban disproportionately interferes with the right to communication and freedom of expression. This is guaranteed by the French constitution.
Furthermore, the Council criticizes the blanket nature of the law. It is not clear enough what criteria must be met to fall under the ban. This creates the risk that services that pose no risk to young people will also fall under the law. Only "educational and scientific services" are exempted, although no specific names are mentioned here either. Otherwise, the legal text relies only on existing EU regulations.
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Finally, the Council criticizes the age verification required by the law. The privacy of users is not sufficiently protected, according to the report. According to the law, the operators of the respective services are responsible for implementing effective age verification.
Macron still wants to continue
The Constitutional Council is not the only body to call the French Parliament back. A previous draft law by Renaissance politician Laure Miller already met its end in the form of an EU commissioner's rebuke.
However, President Emmanuel Macron will not be deterred by this. He instructed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to draw up a new, legally sound version of the draft law. Taking into account EU law, this should then be implemented by spring 2027 at the latest. The EU Commission, for its part, had already announced that it would draw up a regulation on social media after the summer.
I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.
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