The government demanded on Monday that social media present "clear rules" regarding the banning of users who post problematic content, reminding them of their obligation to moderate and threatening sanctions.
The platforms Meta, Snapchat, Tiktok, Twitch, YouTube and X have been "summoned" by the government to respond in particular to their obligation to moderate content.
"There is significant room for improvement, and that is why we are going to review them and continue to work on them collectively," Aurore Bergé, Minister for Gender Equality, told the press after the meeting.
She asked the platforms to present her "in writing" with "precise rules" on "how many infractions" must be committed "to be banned" from each network. She also asked them to work "in a much more coordinated manner" to prevent a user banned from one platform from continuing to post on another.
"Particularly problematic accounts, followed by millions and millions of people (...) must be stopped," she insisted, referring to the widespread dissemination of hateful, violent, anti-Semitic and even racist content.
Social media networks will be summoned again "before mid-July" to discuss changes to the rules for their users. The government also wants to know whether particularly problematic accounts that have been reported to them will be "banned" or not, and "on what criteria."
Either the platforms "clean up their act, and they do it quickly and they do it over time, or once again, the law will be brought to their attention and sanctions will be imposed," Aurore Bergé stressed.
In addition to problematic content, the government has singled out certain social media "mechanisms" that lead users to only see certain types of potentially problematic content, such as the #skinnytok trend, which is full of violent, guilt-inducing, and dangerous injunctions, encouraging people to drastically reduce their diet.
"After a fierce battle," TikTok "finally decided last night to remove the hashtag skinnytok from its search engine," Clara Chappaz, the Minister Delegate for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs, also said after the meeting. "It's a small step, it's not enough, but it shows that we won't give up."
The meeting on Monday afternoon was also attended by Arcom, the audiovisual and digital watchdog, the national police directorate, the national gendarmerie directorate, and the Pharos illegal content reporting platform.
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