the government wants a criminal sanction for platforms that do not remove illegal content within 24 hours

The Ministry of the Interior is working on the establishment of a criminal sanction against internet platforms in the event of “non-removal within 24 hours of child pornography content”, France Inter learned on Thursday from a source familiar with the matter.

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According to information from France Inter, this new criminal sanction must be integrated into a broader bill which will be presented at the beginning of May to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, after recent adoption, in Brussels, of European regulations on digital.

This criminal sanction against a platform refusing to remove child pornography content within 24 hours may go up to one year’s imprisonment, a fine of 250,000 euros, or even up to 4% of the worldwide turnover of this platform in the event of repeated breaches. It is the investigators of the government platform for reporting illegal online content Pharos who will then have to seize the legal authorities directly.

Currently, a platform on the Internet is not held responsible for the content it hosts, unless it has received a serious report and is aware that it is illegal content. According to a source familiar with the matter, joined by France Inter, this threat of criminal sanction will make it possible to be ahead of future European regulations in the matter planned for the year 2024.