France strikes an authoritarian blow against free speech and innovation

Published May 15, 2020 7:05pm ET



Likely motivated by a desire to pilfer the bank accounts of U.S. social media companies, France this week cracked down on free speech.

The legislation passed by the National Assembly on Thursday gives social media companies one hour to remove terrorist- or child pornography-related content and 24 hours to remove content that is seen to cause “discrimination, hatred or violence or denying crimes against humanity, aggravated insults, sexual harassment.” If the content is not removed in the dictated times, social media companies will face fines of up to 4% of their annual worldwide turnover. Considering that Facebook’s turnover was $70 billion in 2019 and Google’s $134 billion, France could now feasibly use one breach to fine Facebook $2.8 billion and Google $5.4 billion.

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