Paris (AFP)
Senators largely modified Wednesday in committee the proposal of law LREM of fight against hatred on the Internet, removing its flagship measure which aimed to oblige platforms and search engines to remove the contents "obviously" illicit under 24 hours.
The text of the member for Paris Laetitia Avia, largely approved by the National Assembly this summer, will be discussed in open session in the Senate next Tuesday.
"We are going to put a spell on the Avia law, we will certainly not vote what has happened to us in the Assembly, no question of entrusting the police with our freedom of expression to the GAFA," warned the leader of the senators LR, Bruno Retailleau.
In committee, the senators unraveled the text, adopting 45 amendments.
In particular, they removed the new offense of "non-withdrawal" of hate content.
The text adopted by MEPs provided that platforms and search engines would be obliged to remove "obviously" illegal content within 24 hours, on pain of being fined up to € 1.25 million. It targeted incitement to hatred, violence, racist or religious insults.
For the rapporteur of the Committee on the Laws of the Senate, Christophe-André Frassa, "despite an intention that can only be shared, the criminal aspect at the heart of the device remains unfinished and carries practical and legal risks".
"Unbalanced at the expense of freedom of expression, it will mechanically encourage platforms to remove - by excess of caution - even legal content," he said.
La Quadrature du Net, an association that advocates the total freedom of the internet, welcomed in a statement "a first victory", calling on the Senate to go "even further than today by rejecting the text as a whole" in session public.
© 2019 AFP