2023-05-31 14:58:06
In the face of misinformation, “one of the greatest threats to our democracy”Jean-Noël Barrot wanted to display his firmness, Monday, May 29, at the microphone of franceinfo. The Minister Delegate for Digital reacted to the announcement, two days earlier, of the withdrawal of Twitter from the European code of good practice, which fights against online misinformation.
Thirty digital giants signed this charter in 2018, on a voluntary basis, and Twitter is no longer part of it. Multi-billionaire Elon Musk, who bought this social network at the end of October 2022, now wants to appeal to his own community of Internet users to report illegal content. Content moderation has been considerably relaxed in six months on Twitter, while the voice of notorious propagators of disinformation has grown louder.
“The Age of Responsibility”
“But alongside this code of practice, which is a voluntary decision, there is a rule, which will apply from August 25, and which obliges the major social media platforms to actively fight against disinformation”added Jean-Noël Barrot.
This long-awaited text, which will apply to all platforms present in the European Union to bring them into “the era of responsibility”, is called the DSA (Digital Services Act). It aims to protect European Internet users from harmful content, in particular by sanctioning social networks that do not make sufficient efforts to reduce disinformation.
The new regulations provide for high fines: up to 6% of the company’s worldwide turnover. Or about 300 million euros for Twitter, said Jean-Noël Barrot.
A temporary access restriction
But the latter especially insisted on the possibility of a “banishment” European soil in the event of repeated infringements. A very political warning, aimed above all at showing the determination of the authorities, believe several specialists interviewed by The cross.
“The DSA does provide for the possibility of restricting users’ access to a platform in the event of a ‘serious and persistent breach’, but this can only be temporary.says Florence G’sell, who teaches law at the University of Lorraine and at Sciences Po Paris. Above all, it can only be requested if it is established that there are criminal offenses involving a threat to the life or safety of persons. »
If these conditions are met, the European Commission may ask the competent regulator (in this case Irish, since Twitter’s European headquarters are in Dublin) to seize the judge to ask him to order this temporary access restriction.
Bypass the ban
“Neither Twitter nor the EU has an interest in coming to this”says Romain Badouard, lecturer at Panthéon Assas University. “The European market is very important for Twitter, but Elon Musk is above all a businessman. As for the EU, it is aware that such a decision would appear to be authoritarian. »
Is such a blocking even technically possible? Yes, even if you can circumvent it by equipping yourself with a VPN (virtual private network allowing you to hide your activities on the Web). “This is what a number of Chinese and Russians are doing to avoid censorship from their respective governments”, recalls Romain Badouard. These two countries, as well as Iran, already block access to several American social networks.
As for India, it has banned access to the Chinese application TikTok for three years, which until then had 200 million users in this country. More recently, at the end of April, Telegram messaging was blocked in Brazil, where it is accused of not cooperating enough with an investigation into neo-Nazi groups. But in the European Union, such bans have very rarely been issued.
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