An ‘unconstitutional’ ban: France rejects the anti-social media law

Today, the Constitutional Council in Paris struck down the French law adopted on 21 July that banned under-15s from accessing social media, ruling that the measure constituted “a disproportionate violation of minors’ freedom of expression”. The decision came following an appeal lodged by a number of Socialist MPs and La France insoumise, and shatters what had been a flagship measure of Macron’s administration in its final term. The French constitutional judges did not deny the need to protect the interests of minors, but they dismantled the structure of the law using arguments based on pure liberal common sense: the ban was too broad, capable of affecting online services whose risks to the health and safety of minors “have not been established”; the exceptions provided for – for example, for online encyclopaedias – remained too limited; and, above all, the age-verification system would have imposed identity checks on all users, both minors and adults, without sufficient safeguards for the protection of privacy.

France had intended to follow Australia’s lead and last month became the first European country to ban social media for under-15s, but following the Council’s decision, French President Emmanuel Macron has already instructed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to ‘work on’ a ‘legally sound’ draft bill. The underlying concerns, however – also identified by French constitutional experts – will remain, because banning access to a platform by decree does not solve the problem, namely excessive or unwitting screen use, but simply shifts onto the state a responsibility that should primarily lie with the education system. Moreover, in doing so, there is a risk of paying the price of widespread digital surveillance. A total ban – which the European Commission is also working towards (with lower, gradual thresholds from the age of 13) – is a convenient diversion, giving the illusion of having solved a complex problem without actually having to tackle it. And so, now that the French Council has declared the French law unconstitutional, collective reflection is urgently needed.