The social network will work with French authorities on hate speech and offensive content.
Background: Regulators in several countries have gone after tech companies on several areas, including hate speech and disinformation. France is one of the countries where regulators have been the most proactive, having tried to pass legislation on “fake news” during the year.
What’s new? In a speech at the Internet Governance Forum in Paris, French president Emmanuel Macron announced an “unprecedented field experiment”. Facebook will host delegations of French regulatory authorities, which will monitor how the company monitors and removes hate speech, with the view to produce practical recommendations at the end of the pilot.
What’s next? It is understood that the pilot will last for the first six months of the year, so we will see the outcome in H2 2019. “It is an experiment, but it is an important first step in my opinion [...] I hope we can replicate this method with other companies”, Macron added.
