Internet: the bill to “secure” the digital “Wild West” voted definitively this Wednesday News

The bill to secure the internet completes its parliamentary journey in the Assembly on Wednesday, where it should be widely adopted even if some are reserved, between fears for public freedoms and lack of ambition on the supervision of pornographic sites. Widely approved by MPs in October, this text which aims to regulate the digital “Wild West”, in the words of rapporteur Paul Midy (Renaissance), had to be carefully rewritten to meet the requirements of the law. European.

The Joint Commission (CMP), bringing together a delegation of deputies and senators, finally met at the end of March and the text was largely adopted in the Senate on April 2 (302 for, 2 against, 36 abstentions), before returning to the Assembly for this final vote. Cyberharassment, internet scams, hate speech, accessibility of pornographic sites to minors... all scourges to which the bill aimed at securing and regulating the digital space (SREN) attempts to provide a response.

Based on European regulations on digital services and digital markets, the text has as its common thread the “protection of citizens, children and businesses”, Jean-Noël Barrot, then Minister Delegate for Digital, said in October. If it had abstained during the first reading in October, the National Rally will vote against this time, according to MP Aurélien Lopez-Liguori. In question, the inclusion in the text of an offense of online contempt punishable by a “fixed tort fine” of 300 euros. “We believe that this is unconstitutional and an attack on the freedoms of the French,” he explains.

Also read: Aurélie Jean: “Dear members of the majority, anonymity on the internet already does not exist!”

This offense of online contempt - deleted in the Assembly before being included in the text of the CMP - will make it possible to sanction the fact of "disseminating online any content which either harms the dignity of a person or presents an insulting, degrading or humiliating character towards him, or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive situation against him.” A “vague crime” which “derogates (..) from the law of 1881”, alarms the association for the defense of digital freedoms La Quadrature du net.

La France insoumise will vote again against the text. She will table a motion of rejection aimed at cutting short its examination at the start of the debates in the hemicycle, and is preparing an appeal to the Constitutional Council, says LFI MP for Loire-Atlantique Ségolène Amiot. Target of its criticism, the offense of online contempt, but also the regulations on “Jonum”, games with monetizable digital objects, on the border between video games and gambling. The text establishes a new legal framework that is more flexible than the existing one for “gambling and chance” and will authorize, as an exception, winnings in cryptocurrency by regulating them. “We’re getting one hell of a foot in the door! (...) Jonum should be subject to the regulation of games of chance,” criticizes Ségolène Amiot.

Several deputies also deplore, in unison with feminist and minor protection associations, a text with reduced ambitions concerning the regulation of pornographic video platforms. In the interest of compliance with European law, Arcom's regulatory power over sites that do not prevent minors from accessing their content will only concern platforms established in France or outside of France. European Union, missing most of its target.

And the idea of entrusting Arcom with the responsibility of building a “reference” defining the way in which the platforms should go about it is also strongly criticized. “This is what the sites want to save time,” exclaims the former president of Dare to Feminism, Céline Piques. The majority also had to essentially abandon its plan to facilitate the lifting of anonymity on the internet, in the face of government hostility. The text only provides for providing access to a “digital identity” to all French people who wish it by 2027, without requiring Internet users to have one in order to open an account on social networks.