A new French law to prevent misinformation and fake news on social media has led to its own campaign being rejected by Twitter, BBC reported on Twitter.
The French government wanted to launch the #OuiJeVote (Yes, I Vote) campaign with sponsored tweets to encourage citizens to vote for the European Parliamentary elections, which will be held on May 26 and in which all European Union nations participate. The campaign was to be coordinated by the France’s Government Information Service, which would also pay for it, said AFP.
However, Twitter could not figure out a way to abide by the new laws and hence decided to opt out.
The law, passed by the French Parliament in December 2018, requires digital platforms to disclose all sponsored content by identifying the author and publishing the amount paid. “Platforms exceeding a certain number of hits a day must have a legal representative in France and publish their algorithms,” says the French government website. The law was passed particularly to avoid attempts to influence voting results, as was allegedly noted during the 2016 American presidential elections and the Brexit process in England, said the website.
The French government criticised Twitter’s stance. “Twitter does not know how to do that [comply with the law] today, and so decided to have a completely hard-line policy, which is to cut any so-called political campaign,” Government Information Service told AFP. “It’s not that the law has backfired against us, it’s a platform which does not comply.”
The Government Information Service said that this is a public initiative to get people to register to vote and should not count as a political campaign.
French Interior Minister Christophe Castanter expressed his ire on Twitter. “Twitter’s priority should be to combat content that glorifies terrorism. Not campaigns prompting to register on the electoral lists of a democratic republic,” he tweeted in French. He said that the matter would be taken up with technology companies at a meeting on Thursday.
Parliamentarian Naima Moutchou tweeted: “I thought it was an April Fools [joke]!”
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