France: Slow Sunday Lunch, Fast Content Removal
May 14, 2020
Mais, oui. The French enjoy Sunday lunch. A long Sunday lunch even in the midst of l’épidémie. However, sometimes the French want fast action. You know, the TGV of giant Internet routing.
The truth and ethics outfit Thomson Reuters’ story “France to Force Web Giants to Delete Some Content Within the Hour.” Exactly what is a “Web giant.”
Here in Harrod’s Creek, a “Web giant” evokes images of the fun and friendly high school science clubs at Facebook and Google. Maybe the Bezos bulldozer drivers qualify, particularly when books which criticize French cuisine are marketed at a discount? I suppose one could add the culture sucking vampires at Netflix. For a student at the Sorbonne whose father is the head of a major French government department, the student’s grousing about a bad Mac keyboard could put Apple in the hot seat.
What about Cisco, IBM, Oracle, or Walmart? Nah, not really. Online travel agencies operating from a trailer in Hoboken, New Jersey? Nope.
Instagram? Yes. Snapchat? Yes. TikTok (wherever that’s located?) Yes. YouTube? Oh, yeah, YouTube. Twitch? Yep, bet your bippy on that one.
The write up presents the real news this way:
Social networks and other online content providers will have to remove paedophile and terrorism-related content from their platforms within the hour or face a fine of up to 4% of their global revenue under a French law…
There’s one hitch in the git along: Getting the money.
Some long Sunday lunches will be needed so the French collections authorities can find a way to get those euros or whatever currencies flow like a wonderful Beaujolais during the November festival.
Taking down content is more difficult than popping a cork. That’s the point. One hour may be too little time for Web giants to do much more than trip over their Airbird clad feet.
Stephen E Arnold, May 15, 2020
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