Paris (AFP)
We must "restore the fear of the gendarme" on the internet, in particular by allowing the justice system and the police to intervene more quickly in the event of a violation of the law online, estimated Monday the Secretary of State for Digital Cédric O, after the Griveaux affair.
"There is a virtual impunity online" regretted Cédric O on France Info, who asked him about the lessons to be learned from the withdrawal of Benjamin Griveaux from the race for mayor of Paris following the dissemination of intimate videos .
"Today, we commonly consider that what is online is less serious than what is committed in real life. We must reverse the logic," said the secretary of state.
The State is reacting at the moment with new devices such as the filing of complaints online and the creation of a public prosecutor's office specializing in digital, explained Cédric O.
"Today, when you have 100, 1,000 anti-Semitic or homophobic insults, the justice system finds it difficult to seek them in the temporality which is that of the Internet," he explained.
"If you judge four months later, it is useless so we must update our judicial processes - it is not just a French problem it is a problem worldwide", he said. said.
The French government is also discussing with Brussels and the Americans the question of better regulation of social networks, he added.
"We are effective" in removing content linked to terrorism and child pornography, but "we are ineffective in slightly less serious abuses" like that of cyber-harassment, he said.
Social networks like Facebook are "systemic and structuring actors for our economies, our democracies".
"They must be subject to supervision, systemic control," he added, hinting that a first step would be taken at European level.
"We specifically discussed this" with European commissioners Margrethe Vestager and Thierry Breton two weeks ago, he said.
© 2020 AFP