PARIS — The French National Assembly, the country’s lower chamber of parliament, on Tuesday passed the controversial Law Aiming to Secure and Regulate the Digital Space, which includes provisions targeting adult content added during a period of relentless media attacks and panic-mongering against the porn industry.
Besides aiming to regulate adult content online, the 36 articles of the law, which were the protracted result of a record 953 amendments to the original text, also concern topics such as financial scams, online harassment and data protection.
The law passed on a vote of 360-77, with the support of a coalition of parties. The left-leaning Republican and Socialist parties joined the center-right Macron government in supporting the law, while the far-left La France Insoumise party opposed it, declaring it “a mess.” The Communist, Green and far-right parties abstained.
As XBIZ reported, in July, when key amendments stemming from a sensationalist anti-porn parliamentary report were added, Senator Laurence Rossignol (Socialist) acknowledged that the revised legislation “will complicate the life of publishers of porn sites.”
“That is the goal,” he added.
The provisions relating to adult content were inspired by the government’s desire to bypass the courts and force platforms to implement age verification. The first section of the law grants government regulator ARCOM more power to block and delist sites that do not comply — including not only adult sites but also any site that allows explicit content, such as Twitter/X.
A Law Explicitly Drafted to Bypass the Justice System
The five most popular adult sites in France — Pornhub, Tukif, xHamster, XVideos and Xnxx — have previously been selectively targeted by the government.
In April, those sites presented their objections to a controversial, vaguely worded age verification law allowing ARCOM to seek a blocking order for sites that fail to prevent minors from accessing unspecified “online pornography.” That age verification mandate was surreptitiously added to a hastily approved domestic violence law during an atypical and sparsely attended COVID-era session of the French Parliament in July 2020.
The sites’ lawyers presented requests to nullify the proceedings and order a stay of the proposed block. The tribunal has since repeatedly delayed its opinion as it waited for the new Law Aiming to Secure and Regulate the Digital Space to render the case moot.
The new law also requires websites to deploy mandatory tools for added age verification, and addresses deepfakes, nonconsensual distribution of personal sex videos, disinformation, scams and online harassment.
The second section aims to protect the public from foreign propaganda, disinformation and interference. It also criminalizes new forms of slander, bullying and vaguely defined “sexist and sexual outrage.”
The third part of the law regulates data protection.
The legislation, which was approved by the Senate on July 7, will now return to a joint committee of the National Assembly before becoming law.