In France, preparing a new "anti-terrorism" law: under the blow of the Internet company

French President Francois Hollande said that his government was preparing to discuss a bill introducing responsibility for posting extremist materials on the Internet. According to the innovation, if Internet companies allow such texts to be placed on their resources, then they "... will be considered as accomplices of hate speech." In connection with this law, Bloomberg journalists confidently predicted problems for companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter.



The decision was not made spontaneously: French Interior Minister Bernard Kazneuve (Bernard Cazeneuve) claims that he has already visited the United States, where he had consultations with the leadership of a number of Internet giants. How the negotiations ended and what the attitude of companies to the initiative of the French president is is still unknown. It is also not known which measures of influence will be applied if the law is adopted and a precedent takes place.



Hollande himself says this:

We must act at the European and international level to develop a regulatory framework so that the Internet companies that manage social media are aware of their responsibilities and measures that can be taken.

About a week ago, Microsoft’s chief lawyer, Brad Smith, said that an official request from the French government was sent to his company. The document contained a request to place at their disposal the contents of the mailboxes of suspected perpetrators of a terrorist act as edited by the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Microsoft fulfilled the request of the French special services within 45 minutes.



It seems that the authorities of other countries also agree that Internet companies should be more attentive to their social resources. British Prime Minister David Cameron opposes encrypted messages on the Internet. US President Barack Obama shares his point of view, believing that “backdoors” in encryption are necessary.