Withdrawal within the hour of terrorist content on the web: the law deemed to be in conformity with the Constitution

Europe 1 with AFP 4:53 p.m., August 13, 2022

The Constitutional Council gave the green light on Saturday to the LREM bill, adopted at the end of July and providing for compelling publishers and web hosts to remove so-called terrorist content within the hour.

The Wise Men were seized by deputies from La France insoumise on this text which adapts a European regulation and partly takes up one of the flagship provisions of the Avia law, widely challenged by the Constitutional Council in July 2020.

An offense punishable by one year in prison and a fine of 250,000 euros.

The law imposes the removal of "terrorist content" online within the hour on all hosting service providers and introduces the possibility for national authorities to issue cross-border removal orders.

The refusal to comply with the withdrawal of this content is punishable by one year's imprisonment and a fine of 250,000 euros and can, in extreme cases, go up to 4% of the turnover of the digital platform.

In their appeal, the Insoumis considered that the text carried "a manifest attack on the freedom of expression and communication guaranteed by article 11 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789".

The issue of terrorist content

In its decision, the Constitutional Council considers that "the contested provisions do not violate the freedom of expression and communication" and "the judges therefore comply with the Constitution".

The Sages stress in particular that terrorist content "constitutes abuses of the freedom of expression and communication which seriously undermine public order and the rights of third parties".

The withdrawal order must also "include not only the reference to the type of content concerned, but also a sufficiently detailed motivation", welcome the Wise Men.

Arcom can also intervene

It is the Central Office for the Fight against Crime Related to Information and Communication Technologies (OCLCTIC), a service of the judicial police, which has been appointed to issue the withdrawal injunctions.

Also, a qualified personality of Arcom (Audiovisual and digital communication regulatory authority) can recommend the cancellation of a withdrawal injunction if it considers it unfounded, or even urgently seize administrative justice.

Thus, "the determination of the terrorist nature of the content in question is not left to the sole discretion of the administrative authority", notes the Council.

Finally, the possibility for web hosts and publishers, who contest a withdrawal injunction, to obtain a decision from the administrative justice within 72 hours and within a month in the event of an appeal, constitutes, in the eyes of the Wise Men, " promptly".