Really Bad Ideas: French President Macron Wants To Ban 'Fake News' During The Election

Free Speech

from the now-define-it dept

French President Emmanuel Macron was held up by some in the tech industry as a moderate who “got technology” leading up to his election. And yet, every time he seems to weigh in on tech related issues, it’s with an absolutely terrible take on it. He wanted to mandate encryption backdoors and demand internet censorship of “radicals” online who post “inflammatory content.” And now he’s expanding that position and saying he wants to ban “fake news” during election season.

In his new year?s speech to journalists at the &?Eacute;lys&?eacute;e palace, Macron said he would shortly present the new law in order to fight the spread of fake news, which he said threatened liberal democracies.

New legislation for websites would include more transparency about sponsored content. Under the new law, websites would have to say who is financing them and the amount of money for sponsored content would be capped.

For fake news published during election seasons, an emergency legal action could allow authorities to remove that content or even block the website, Macron said. ?If we want to protect liberal democracies, we must be strong and have clear rules,? he added.

The transparency idea isn’t such a bad one (though the details would matter quite a bit), but it’s unclear why the amount of money for sponsored content should be capped if it’s clearly labeled and disclosed. But the really troubling part is that last one, allowing for “emergency legal action” to remove content. It may not be surprising that Macron is saying this about fake news — since there were reports of a burst of fake new campaigns that tried to influence the French electorate to vote against Macron in the election.

But, as we’ve discussed many, many times — the idea of government-mandated censorship, even if for the idea of stopping “fake news” is a terrible idea. It will be abused and abused badly. Remember, while the term “fake news” was first popularized by people who were upset about Donald Trump’s election, he’s now co-opted the term and uses it to argue that any media report that makes him look bad is “fake news.” Imagine what a Trump or a French Trump-like figure would do with this kind of power?

A big part of the problem, obviously, is that “fake news” means different things to different people, and whoever has the power to order such content taken down will have plenty of opportunities to abuse that power — such as to take down news that is merely unflattering to those in power. Or, even on a more subtle level, what if an unflattering story has a few small errors or misrepresentations. Claim “fake news” and make it disappear. This eagerness of so many to immediately leap to “censor it!” as the only possible response to propaganda is highly troubling — and most certainly goes against the French ideals of freedom.

Filed Under: censorship, emmanuel macron, fake news, france, free speech