French President, Emmanuel Macron, has announced plans for a new law that would curb the menace of Fake News, with social media facing stricter regulations on contents during elections.
Addressing the Media in a New Year reception, Macron asserted that propagating false information through social media has become easier with less money needed.
“Thousands of propaganda accounts on social networks are spreading all over the world, in all languages, lies invented to tarnish political officials, personalities, public figures, journalists”,
He stated that limits would be put on how much could be spent on sponsoring news articles.
“We will develop our legal system to protect democracy from this fake news”.
He also added that France’s audiovisual regulators would be entitled to more powers to “fight any destabilization attempt by television channels controlled or influenced by foreign states”.
Meanwhile, correspondents are convinced that Macron had Russia in mind when he made the announcement, due to the reported involvement of Russia in France’s electioneering process.
In May 2017, Macron denounced Russia media outlets; Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, at a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the basis of spreading “deceitful propaganda”.
Following the incident, RT has launched a French-language TV channel.