Tech firms will be "considered complicit" in spreading hate speech if they allow it on their sites, the French President has said.

[CtW]

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31020415

My opinion:

 

(Please excuse the font color; automatic text color was not working so I made it a grey that is good on both themes)

From article:

 

Francois Hollande called for a legal framework and sanctions to make them "face up to their responsibilities".

The French Interior Minister said he was due to discuss combating terrorist propaganda with US tech companies.

But a French free speech group said it amounted to asking the firms to act as privatised police.

Mr Hollande said: "We must act on a European and even an international level so that a legal framework can be defined, and that the online platforms that run the social networks are made to face up to their responsibilities, and that sanctions are imposed when they do not."

'Plan of action'

He added that he wanted the French government to draw up a "global plan of action" to deal with racism and anti-Semitism by the end of February.

And, speaking at a service marking 70 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz on Tuesday, he said he would ask other world leaders for their support when he met them later that day.The BBC's Paris Correspondent Lucy Williamson said: "The Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has confirmed that he will travel to the United States to meet major internet operators like Google and Facebook, to talk about new ways of combating what he called 'terrorist propaganda' on the internet."

'Complicit'

Mr Hollande said that France supported an appeal from the Union of Former Deportees and the Union of French Jewish Students, against online Holocaust denial.

"It is aimed at the big operators - we know who they are. They can no longer close their eyes, otherwise they will be considered complicit in what is spread," he said.

The President added that he wanted the country's government to present "between now and the end of February, a global plan of action against racism and anti-Semitism".

Jeremie Zimmermann of French online freedom group La Quadrature du Net told the BBC: "Removing the judiciary from the equation by asking private companies based in the US to surveil and sanction their users - like an automated, privatised police force - goes contrary to the most fundamental principles of our democracies, and against fundamental freedoms.

"Destroying our own democracy and freedom is playing the terrorists' game - and letting them win it - a very dangerous and counterproductive trend. "

'Concerns'

In the aftermath of the three days of attacks in Paris, which began on 7 January, the French government has moved to tackle extremism online.

In a cabinet meeting a week after the attacks, ministers said that the intelligence services' ability to deal with the "terrorist menace" online, and particularly on social networks, had diminished in recent years.

They said that they would be given extra resources to be used specifically to counter the threat online.

And they said that a partnership with the technology giants would be "indispensable" as they sought to create the "conditions for rapid reporting of content inciting racial hatred and terror".

The French government also launched a video campaign on social media to try to dissuade would-be jihadists under the headline "you will die alone, far from home".

The video, which is visually similar to some Islamic State propaganda films, seeks to counter the arguments put forward by extremist groups.

'Committed'

Social networks such as Facebook are known to meet regularly with government officials in order to address various concerns, and particularly those around terrorism, since the Paris attacks.

A Google spokesman said the firm was "committed to assisting the French and other governments in their fight against terrorism and crime, both in times of emergency and at other times."

He added: "We have clear policies banning incitement to violence or promotion of hatred on our platforms, and we remove such content whenever our users or law enforcement flag them to us. We are always at the French Government's disposal if they want to meet us to discuss this topic."

A spokesman for Facebook refused to comment.

 

This is not good at all. While hate speech and terrorism and all that is awful and needs to be gotten rid of, bypassing the judiciary system and forcing companies to remove anything that a nation deems to be hate speech and terrorism can lead to governments really overstepping their bounds as far as free speech is concerned. The best way to get rid of all of this stuff is through educating people that hate speech is wrong and causing the public view of the organizations that perpetuate hate to be crushed so that this stuff is ignored. Part of free speech is allowing people to say anything they want to even if what they say is offensive and hate-filled. Also, holding companies themselves accountable for the actions of their users is just plain dumb too.

[EarthboundHero]

Please fix formatting for night theme. 

[WinNut]

qq.

 

And @CtW bby please fix formatting.

[Deletive]

After sitting in a room for 2 hours reading multiple articles about what happened thats worth a fair bit of my grade.

I think this is a terrible idea/way of dealing with the problem.

[Sidiox]

Ow please don't. Censorship won't work

[SpaceCore]

I doubt this will take. huge hypocrites if they pass something like this.. 

[CtW]

qq.

 

And @CtW bby please fix formatting.

 

Please fix formatting for night theme. 

ok i changed the color to a grey that is legible with both themes.

[RH00D]

In related logic, the French government is complicit in spreading hate speech because it is spoken (undoubtedly) by a small minority of citizens within the country.

[Syntaxvgm]

This is the logic that the US goverment used to take down Megaupload

 

"If a few of your millions of users on your website that allows people to share freely upload something illegal in our country, you are responsible for their personal actions and not monitoring every single user of your wbesite"

[Trik'Stari]

Good to see another country committing cultural suicide in favor of possibly offending someone. Because we all know that offending someone is 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000^100000000000 times worse than the holocaust.

 

/s

[StingBull]

All bad ideas come from French.

[Albatross]

Oh, sweet, censorship. I'm sure it will help deal with the problem.

[wpirobotbuilder]

All bad ideas come from French.

That might be one of the most ignorant things ever said. Consider the run of poor ideas that U.S. entities have been spewing forth.

[Trik'Stari]

All bad ideas come from French.

That might be one of the most ignorant things ever said. Consider the run of poor ideas that U.S. entities have been spewing forth.

You're both right.

 

I blame Canada

[Silent_Xaxal]

Well he IS a Socialist.

[CtW]

Olney other thing, this whole thing completely goes against the point of the Charlie hebdo rally which was all about defending free speech and how the voice of the people will triumph over oppression. one ssecond France is talking about how great free speech is and the next second they are trying to limit it. Oh, the irony.