Text "liberticide" , "remedy worse than evil" for its detractors, the law Avia against online hatred, which had been adopted in mid-May by the National Assembly, is therefore unconstitutional. Seized by more than sixty Senators The Republicans, the Constitutional Council, in a decision made public on Thursday, largely censored the key device, inflicting a halt to the whole bill. "There is almost only the title which is constitutional , ironically Bruno Retailleau, president of the LR group in the Senate, on Twitter. This censorship is a disavowal for all those who make profession of good-will and who do not stop making the moral to the French » .
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It is also a "great victory" for operators of internet platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube: the Elders censored the flagship measure, which required "operators to remove hateful or sexual content posted online within 24 hours "
The Council considered that certain provisions could already “encourage the operators of online platform to withdraw the contents which are announced to them, whether or not they are manifestly illicit” , and judged “particularly short” the 24 hour period imposed on certain operators, “under penalty of penal sanction” , for “withdrawing or making inaccessible obviously illicit contents because of their hateful or sexual character” .
"Freedom of expression and communication is all the more precious since its exercise is a condition of democracy and one of the guarantees of respect for other rights and freedoms," he said. He considers that "the legislator has attacked freedom of expression and communication which is not adapted, necessary and proportionate to the aim pursued" .
Read also: Avia Law: "Facebook had already delimited what it is allowed to think"
The Constitutional Council also censored the provision providing for an hour's withdrawal for terrorist or child pornography content in the event of notification by the public authorities. These two censures mechanically entail that of other articles of the text intended to accompany the implementation of these withdrawal obligations.
"Strong demand from victims"
Aiming to combat cyber-hatred in all its forms (racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, etc.) and against child pornography, the text had aroused many reservations, in particular from the National Digital Council, the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights man, or Quadrature du Net, which defends individual freedoms in the digital world. The finalized version was voted on May 13.
Denouncing a threat to freedom of expression, which was added to the already controversial law against "fake news" , adopted at the end of 2018, or to "Désinfox coronavirus ", this space on the government site validating press articles, LR politicians, like the far left and the far right, had voted against this text in Parliament. As of May 18, the Constitutional Council had been seized.
But for Laetitia Avia, MP for Paris, "it is not a question of giving up this fight". "This decision of the Constitutional Council must be able to constitute a roadmap to improve a system that we knew was new and therefore perfectible" , even dares the president of the executive office and spokesperson of LREM. The health crisis and the increased use of social networks have resulted in "a 56% increase in hate content, according to the France Digitale report of May 2020" , she recalls.
Read also: Who is Laetitia Avia, the MP accused of "horrifying" her parliamentary assistants?
"While millions of people around the world are mobilizing against discrimination, this law came to respond to strong demand from victims ," she said in a press release, together with the majority of deputies, the government and many associations, we are engaged in a long-term fight against hate speech on the internet. A fight that will have to be pursued tomorrow, in particular thanks to the creation of two new bodies: the online hate observatory and the specialized prosecution service. A fight that must be waged with demand and determination, including on a European scale ” .
»SEE ALSO - Hatred online: understanding the controversy over the Avia law
Hatred online: understanding the controversy over the Avia law - Watch on Figaro Live
