Paris, July 5: French members of parliament (MPs) backed a bill on Thursday to provide online social media platforms only 24 hours to quickly remove hate speech or face consequences, the latest European initiative to handle online abuse, racism, homophobia, sexism, and anti-semitism.
According to Dawn news reports, the members of the lower parliament house voted 31-6 in favour to adopt the first article of new legislation proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron-led political party, similar to German law.
Online social media websites that fail to act in line with the law, risk penalty of at least $1.4 million. Moreover, final voting on the issue is likely to be held next Tuesday.
Other aspects of the legislation include an idea to generate an identical button over all social media platforms and SEO (search engines optimization) which would enable users to raise message that claimed to be “obviously” illegal and hateful.
Laetitia, an MP who has drafted the bill, on Wednesday told parliament, “We should not tolerate on the internet what we do not tolerate on the street,” further adding she herself don’t want to face racism and abuse by online social media trolls.
Critics have stated the law offers huge power in the social media platforms’ hands by inspecting online speeches.