Internet. Should operators block sites that propagate hatred?

How to fight against racist websites hosted abroad? By blocking them, advocates the government. Interview with Frédéric Potier, Interministerial Delegate for the fight against racism, antisemitism and anti-LGBT hatred.

Frédéric Potier is the interministerial delegate for Dilcrah (Interministerial Delegation for the fight against racism, antisemitism and anti-LGBT hatred). He speaks about the fact that the Paris prosecutor has summoned nine telecommunications operators to block Participatory Democracy. And how to fight against these racist and anti-Semitic sites. Interview.

Nine operators including Orange, SFR, Bouygues, are summoned on Thursday 8 November. The Paris prosecutor's office asks them to block the site Democracy participative, with racist and antisemitic contents. It's rare.

Extremely rare. There was a previous case, more than a decade ago. The challenge is to be able to provide an effective legal response. Since criminally, we can not formally identify the author of this site (1) hosted in California, we must use a method that makes it inaccessible.

Other European countries are already blocking such sites ...

Germany in particular passed a law that allows to remove under 24 or 48 hours of hate content. If the operators do not do it, the fine can go up to 50 million euros. The German authorities say today they have noticed a sharp decline in these messages. It's not a matter of making a copy-and-paste, but we can draw inspiration from it.

What does the interministerial delegation do to counter these contents on the web?

We support different projects. For example, the association Digital Generation which develops the program "Funny Plots". Its speakers go to schools so that students can better evaluate the content of social networks. For the year 2019, we have launched a call for projects: we will finance such local actions for a total amount of two million euros.

Have homophobic attacks increased in France?

Yes, 15% in the first nine months of the year. The government will make announcements on this subject next week.

(1): According to Le Monde, who indicates having consulted a note from the General Directorate of the National Police and the Prefecture of Police, it could be Breton Boris Le Lay. Condemned multiple times, this ultranationalist who also illustrated on the site Breizatao would be a refugee in Japan.