A new French law that would have required such social media platforms as Facebook to take down objectionable content within 24 hours has been rejected by France’s Constitutional Council as a disproportionate response to the proliferation of hate speech online.
The ruling is a limited victory for free-speech advocates and a temporary reprieve for Facebook and other platforms, which under the new law would have faced heavy costs for real-time mediation of content and heavy fines for failure to comply, media lawyers told Law.com International.
