The Senate votes a text to “secure” the Internet (social networks, porn, scams, deepfakes, etc.)

The Senate unanimously adopted, at first reading, the bill to “secure” the Internet. This means fighting against children’s access to pornographic sites and setting up an anti-scam filter for everyone, among other elements.

France wants to “secure” the Internet

The question of the responsibility of social networks and their control did not fail to emerge in the debate, after several days of violence throughout the territory. The Minister responsible for the Digital Transition, Jean-Noël Barrot, has promised to set up a working group “transpartisan and equal”, which could meet next Wednesday. The recommendations it will formulate could be adopted during the examination of the text in the National Assembly, after the summer recess of Parliament.

The bill makes it possible to adapt French law to the new European regulations DMA (Digital Markets Act) and DSA (Digital Services Act). These impose new rules on the biggest digital players in terms of abuse of dominant position or regulation of problematic content. The project also aims to strengthen the protection of the most vulnerable in the digital world and to increase the powers of the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication (Arcom) in the fight against minors’ access to pornographic sites. It will be able to order the blocking, without the decision of a judge, of the pornographic sites which do not verify the age of their visitors.

On the other hand, faced with the multiple attempts at scams by e-mail or SMS, the bill sets up a free anti-scam filter sending a warning message to anyone who is about to go to a site identified as malicious.

Several measures in place

The text also provides for a new additional penalty of banishment from a network that a judge can pronounce when he condemns a person for acts of online hatred, cyber-harassment, or other serious offenses.

The Senate has extended the scope of the offenses concerned, including threats and intimidation against elected officials. He also wanted to create an offense of online contempt, punishable by a fixed tort fine (AFD) of 300 euros.

In another register, the upper house has given the green light to government amendments explicitly targeting deepfakes, synthesis techniques that make it possible to create misleading videos or images. The text also includes provisions to regulate the cloud.

Among the other measures, there is a beginning of regulation of games with monetizable digital objects (Jonum), at the crossroads of leisure games and games of money and chance.