Facebook Agrees To Give French Judges Identifying People Suspected Of Hate Speech, Official Says

Facebook continues to wage war against the freedom of speech. Facebook agreed Tuesday night to hand French judges the identification data of French users who are suspected of distributing hate speech, the country’s digital affairs minister said. Who decides what’s hate speech? Who decides what’s good and what’s forbidden? Facebook, an American communications company, is aiding and abetting the criminalization of speech.  It is unthinkable.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The globalized, “bobo-ized [bourgeois Bohemian] upper classes” are filling the “new citadels” — as in Medieval France — and are voting en masse for Macron. They have developed “a single way of talking and thinking… that allows the dominant classes to substitute for the reality of a nation subject to severe stress and strain the fable of a kind and welcoming society.” — Christophe Guilluy, Twilight of the Elites, Yale University Press, 2019.

The suicide of France.

Facebook To Give French Judges Identifying Data Of People Suspected Of Hate Speech, Official Says

By Chris White, Daily Caller,  June 26, 2019

Facebook agreed Tuesday night to hand French judges the identification data of French users who are suspected of distributing hate speech, the country’s digital affairs minister said.

The decision comes after several meetings between Zuckerberg and French President Emmanuel Macron, who wants to take a leading role globally on the regulation of hate speech. France’s minister for digital affairs Cedric O, one of Macron’s advisers, has been an influential person directing Macron’s thinking on big tech issues.

“This is huge news, it means that the judicial process will be able to run normally,” O told Reuters. “It’s really very important, they’re only doing it for France.”

Facebook previously refused to provide such identification data because the Silicon Valley company was worried countries without an independent judiciary could abuse it. It was also not required to fork over data under U.S.-French legal conventions. The company has been under intense pressure to crack down on misinformation.

Some are hailing the move, calling it a decision that could have implications across the industry.

“It is a strong signal in terms of regulation,” Sonia Cisse, a counsel at law firm Linklaters, told reporters Tuesday. “Hate speech is no longer considered part of freedom of speech, it’s now on the same level as terrorism.”

The decision comes at an awkward moment for government officials and the company. Facebook has increasingly come under fire for being lax with the private data of its users, especially after lawmakers opened an investigation of the company’s decision to provide data to Cambridge Analytica before the 2016 presidential election.

The company disclosed to investors in April that company officials are putting $3 billion aside in the event the Federal Trade Commission fines them for their role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. They have not reached a settlement with the FTC. The fine could be as high as $5 billion.

Facebook did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.