2023-10-04 16:23:37
Soon the end of anonymity on social networks? This thorny subject is currently being discussed in the National Assembly as part of the bill aimed at securing and regulating the digital space. In committee last week, an article was added, which provides for the generalization by 2030 of the assignment to each Internet user of a “digital identity”, which would make it possible to remove anonymity from online practices.
With this measure, “objective number 1 is to fight against cyberharassment and reduce the level of violence on social networks,” explains Renaissance MP Paul Midy, rapporteur of this bill, to Le Parisien.
What is digital identity anyway?
The digital identity mentioned in the bill refers to “online authentication, that is to say the ability to prove one’s identity online, via the use of identifiers”, can we read on the website of the National Assembly. The idea is “to make the link between an account created on a social network, its digital representations and the real person”, declares to Le Parisien Suzanne Vergnolle, lecturer in digital law at Cnam (National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts).
Messages posted on social networks by a person will no longer only be linked to an account and an IP address, but they could be directly attributed to a natural person. This method “already exists in France, for example with the state platform France Identity or the digital identity of La Poste,” underlines Paul Midy. On these applications, you must first prove your identity to create an account. Then it is possible to access different sites with a single password.
How will this work?
The primary objective is already for 80% of French people to create a digital identity by 2027, 100% by 2030. Secondly, against the advice of the government, Paul Midy and “nearly 200 deputies” from Renaissance, MoDem and Horizons want to go further. They ask in amendments that from 2025, “any creation of a new account” on a social network be subject to a “certification procedure” of the user’s digital identity.
Their plan is that in the future, when you connect to a social network, you will first be redirected to a platform where you will have to enter your digital identity. The social network will not have access to user data, but to a code that can only be deciphered by public authorities. And if anonymity needs to be lifted, if an Internet user has, for example, posted messages of a racist nature or is guilty of cyberharassment, investigators can request this code, which will then be deciphered to find the real person.
With this system, it would still be possible to create an account called Bisounours12 with a photo of a sunflower, and to remain anonymous to other Internet users. Anonymity will only be lifted in the event of an investigation. This measure could in theory apply from the age of 15, i.e. the age of digital majority in France. Below this age, parental consent is normally required to create an account on social networks.
What do the opponents say?
However, several voices were raised against this measure. RN deputy Aurélien Lopez-Liguori points to a “liberticidal logic”, worrying that in the future it will be necessary to prove one’s “digital identity” to open a mailbox. At the other end of the political spectrum, Ségolène Amiot (LFI) denounces the implementation of a “digital passport” which one day may need to be “systematically shown to circulate on the Internet”.
“The generalization of digital identity would mark the end of anonymity on the Web with regard to the State and a breach for potential abuses of control as we observe in a certain number of illiberal countries which have made digital identity a tool of repression and social control,” writes the environmental group in the amendments.
Experts also mention a security risk in the face of this measure, and add that the recovered identity data should be firmly protected. But there is also “a risk of abuse of the use of this database”, underlines Suzanne Vergnolle, recalling that today “there is a system allowing a person to be identified online, in particular through of its IP address.
Is this feasible?
Several significant obstacles could limit the application of this measure. On the one hand, we would have to convince the giants Facebook, TikTok or even X to integrate this recognition system only for France. On the other hand, the use of VPN (Virtual Private Network), a tool which allows you to pretend to be a user living abroad, could limit its real effectiveness.
It remains to be seen whether or not these amendments will be voted on in the National Assembly. The complete text of the law, after being adopted in the Senate, arrived this Wednesday at the Palais-Bourbon where it is to be debated.
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