Fighting online hate: Arcom's role clarified

The decree implementing article 42 of the law of August 24, 2021 reinforcing respect for the principles of the Republic has been published in the Journal Officiel of January 16, 2022. This decree sets at 10 and 15 million single visiters per month the thresholds triggering platforms' obligations to fight agains online hate.

Arcom is responsible for ensuring that platforms abide by the provisions of this article of the law, by monitoring their obligations.

In accordance with the law, the Authority will take into account, as part of its control, the specific characteristics of each of the services concerned, and the adequacy of the means implemented by the operator with regard, in particular, to the extent and seriousness of the risks of the service showing hate content.

Arcom will be able to issue formal notices to operators who fail to comply with their legal obligations, and where appropriate, impose a financial penalty of up to 20 million euros or 6% of annual worldwide sales for the previous financial year.

Platforms will be required to provide periodic transparency reports, the publication details of which will be defined by the regulator. The regulator will issue guidelines for the application of the legislative schemes. As these guidelines are not prescriptive in nature, they will not be a prerequisite for operators to implement the provisions of article 42 of the law of August 24, 2021.

In the first quarter of 2022, the Autorité will hold consultations with the platforms concerned. At the end of this phase, the guidelines and regulatory provisions will be adopted by the Arcom College.

In accordance with the law, Arcom will publish the first annual assessment of the implementation of platforms' obligations to fight agains online hate, at the end of 2022.

At the same time, Arcom will continue to contribute to the negotiation of European legislation on digital services (Digital Services Act), notably within the framework of the European Audiovisual Media Services Regulators Group (ERGA).