The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, urged the Government this Friday to draw up a legislative framework so that the courts can act urgently to quickly block fake news or information that “offends” the dignity of people.
Likewise, the Head of State was in favor of starting to ban mobile phones in high schools starting next academic year.
In a meeting with the French regional press group EBRA, Macron debated with journalists, students, and teachers about the footprint of social media on young people, fake news, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the new era of what he calls “hybrid warfare” against certain powers like Russia.
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“Will Russia attack us tomorrow? No, but we are facing an information, hybrid war,” warned the French president, who said that this week he chaired a Defense Council precisely focused on the fight against false information and interference.
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During that Council, Macron said that he wants to enshrine in French law the possibility for a court to act urgently to block certain information on the networks, which would allow the Justice to adopt certain measures without waiting for a trial on the merits.
The French leader discussed the impact of social media on the cognitive development and behavior of young people.
In that sense, he proposed that mobile phones also begin to be banned in high school (between 16 and 18 years old), after the ban in secondary schools (from 12 to 16).
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“We have removed mobile phones from secondary schools. We are going to extend that measure to high school students starting next academic year, we are discussing it with the minister,” Macron indicated, who confirmed the intention to ban access to social networks for children under 15 years of age in France.
The French president again criticized the moderation of social media, which he continues to consider insufficient, and the way in which algorithms work, to which he asked for “transparency”.
Macron, who has been advocating for years for greater regulation of the network sector, opined that certain networks have created “a desensitization” of young people regarding violence.
The leader cited as an example the revolt of mid-2023, when thousands of young people caused serious disturbances in numerous neighborhoods of France after the death of the minor Nahel, shot by a police officer after skipping a police check on the outskirts of Paris.
“These youths, ninety percent of whom came from broken families, went so far as to burn down schools or gyms, facilities that the State had built precisely for them,” he recalled.
Likewise, Macron defended the work of journalists and assured that it is necessary to strengthen it because they are professionals who have “the deontology” necessary to treat information and prevent false news from serving to weaken democracy itself.
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“It is not the State itself that should verify, because if not, we would become a dictatorship. It has to be the journalists themselves, with their ethics and with a precise methodology,” he elaborated.
