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France Bans Facebook and Twitter From Radio and TV

Posted by Soulskill on from the can-you-ban-it-from-the-web-too-please dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In France, radio and television news anchors are no longer allowed to say the words 'Facebook' and 'Twitter' on air, unless the terms are specifically part of a news story. The ban stems from a decree issued by the French government on March 27, 1992, which forbids the promotion of commercial enterprises on news programs."

22 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. Unless by Andy+Smith · · Score: 5, Funny

    "unless the terms are specifically part of a news story"

    Well that hardly ever happens.

    1. Re:Unless by Hylandr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Check your history before flaming or modding me down.

      If it weren't for France there wouldn't be an America. Seriously, Philosophically, financially, and with their military help America was established. Then they turned around and did for themselves too.

      - Dan.

      --
      ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
    2. Re:Unless by Alex+Belits · · Score: 5, Funny

      And the rest of the world still blames them for you.

      --
      Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
    3. Re:Unless by Tasha26 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You seem to be forgetting presenters who re-direct viewers to their twitter or facebook page and/or ask them add their views to an ongoing discussion of some topic posted/tweeted on those sites. Frankly, I think it's a good move. Why should Facebook and Twitter get free advertising and becomes more popular than they already are? It's hindering emergence of other sites... hmm, non-US sites. :)

    4. Re:Unless by lexsird · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There is an epic amount of "French Bashing" going on in the USA. I find it repulsive because I have always liked the French. I ran into lots of them in MMORPGs such as Asheron's Call, particularly the Dark Tide server. They were fun to fight and fight with. They are a bit quirky and tend to stick together, but can be very friendly if you aren't a tool.

      Its highly important that everyone isn't of the same mindset on planet Earth. I could explain this, but I would rather do it and get an A for it in some damn sociology class, than waste it here.

        Just think if we would have followed the French's lead on Iraq, we wouldn't have invaded and wasted trillions of dollars in a war that we get absolutely NOTHING from. Leave it to the Right wingers to smear them after they didn't play ball with them. AND leave it to capitalists to make every socialist country a villain. BTW, I am not a socialist or capitalist. I believe the intelligent way to govern is to cherry pick what works well and use that for the benefit of EVERYONE, not just the aristocracy.

      Also, contrast the life of the average Frenchman to ours. They live longer, have more free time, have medical and JOBS. I think they are infinitely freer than the corporate wage slaves that we are here. Every time a Rightwinger brays about how socialism doesn't work, pointing to the fall of Russia, I think of the French. In fact, I think of a lot of European countries that are socialists and they haven't "failed".

      With that all said, I cheer them on if they want to keep the news newsworthy and not yet another plug for company X. After all, the airwaves belong to the public, not to any one person, and if you want to use it, you have to follow the rules the public agrees on. If you think our TV has "free speech" to say whatever they want, you are insane. We have something called the FCC and there are censors in this country and have been for decades. After the "Patriot Act", I don't think we have room to talk smack to ANYONE about freedoms. Once we stop our own government from goose stepping all over our Constitution, we might have a leg to stand on.Until then, we need to seriously STFU.

      --
      Take the Red Pill.
    5. Re:Unless by RonnyJ · · Score: 3, Insightful
      That bit should be part of the headline. Terrible editing.

      France Bans Facebook and Twitter From Radio and TV News

    6. Re:Unless by houghi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Please give France back the Statue of Liberty. You don't deserve it anymore. You rape the liberties France helped you with against the British. You slap the the French soldiers in the face who died next to yours in the first Iraq war.

      You try to convince the world that you alone won world war one and two, ignoring the many other countries and men that you were in a coalition with. Canadians, Polish, Russians, French, Dutch, English, South African. The list goes on and on and you could not have done it alone.

      The one war you lost was Vietnam and you couldn't deal with it the moment you went at it alone.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  2. Imagine... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Imagine something similar:
    Visit us at www.texaco.com/abcnews for more information.

  3. France is just jealous... by howlingfrog · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...that Twitter and Facebook have more influence on global culture than it does.

    --
    The original Howling Frog is a fictional character and has no UID.
    1. Re:France is just jealous... by fearlezz · · Score: 3

      No, they're jealous that it's not livre des faces and twitteur

      --
      .sig: No such file or directory
    2. Re:France is just jealous... by alexhs · · Score: 4, Informative

      livre des faces and twitteur

      More like trombinoscope and piailleur.

      --
      I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
  4. I am so conflicted over this... by PyroMosh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    On the one hand, the freedom of speech lover in me thinks that this goes to far, as I do with many things the French do...

    On the other hand, I imagine what CNN would be like if they had to report or analyze a story instead of asking what Twitter thinks of a story...

    --
    Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
  5. Re:Inb4 "freedom of speech" comments by sammyF70 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not about news ABOUT Twitter or Facebook. It's about PR related issues. So, the headline "Facebook's Owner, Marc Zuckerberg, killed by frikking bass with lasers he intended to eat" or even "Bill Gate's Twitter account hacked. His password was Chairs4Steve" are still allowed, whereas "Entertainment Industry comes to term with the fact that DRM is contra productive. Read more on our Facebook page" isn't. In the first two, mentioning the sites is relevant. In the last one it's just hidden advertising (Even if might be unwilling).

    --
    "DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day."-C.Doctorow
  6. Re:Inb4 "freedom of speech" comments by sammyF70 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    it still isn't. "Amazon.com" (or "amazon.fr" in that case) can't be named in similar circumstances ( "Here is our review of "Harry Potter XIII - Resurrection". You can buy it at amazon.fr" isn't allowed, 'Amazon's worth increasing 10 fold on the stock market after Bezos calls his kid "Kindle"' is actually allowed.)

    --
    "DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day."-C.Doctorow
  7. brand names by dotsandlines · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not that I agree with the French policy (or RTFS), but it's recently bothered me (in a very slight way) that we now have forms of communication that can only be referred to through the brand name. We could chat, text, fax, phone and blog without referring to a company name, but Tweets and Facebook posts seem harder to generalize. Just saying something's been "posted online" seems too vague. The proper generic verb hasn't been invented yet.

  8. Re:This is normal throughout (large) parts of Euro by sco08y · · Score: 4, Informative

    Product placement is not allowed in state channels, commercial websites are just that, products.

    And in Europe, it's taken for granted that this is a reasonable restriction and that the idea of state channels is reasonable.

    Most Americans (and probably a lot of Euros) don't grasp that European leftism != American leftism and European rightism != American rightism. There are strong parallels in abstract, but as you cross the pond you see a fundamental change in the cultural gestalt of the relationship between the state and the individual.

  9. Good. by radio4fan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Any objective person can see that saying "Follow us on twitter!" is an endorsement of a commercial service, and it's not legal in France to pepper news programs with adverts like this.

    The blogtards and upcoming posters who say "Stupid bans like these don't work" and "Next they will be after McDonalds and Disney" are either missing the point due to a lack of thought, or don't care about the point and just like to criticize France anyway.

    Personally, I'm amazed that CSA have finally pulled their finger out and have reminded the broadcasters of their responsibilities.

  10. I wish they had that in Australia by JinjaontheNile · · Score: 3

    It is becoming obligatory that half the news stories have half arsed irrelevant comments from Facebook or Twitter Unfortunately I suspect our journalists will find a way around minor obstructions like the French promotion laws.

  11. Proper generic term hasn't been invented by petes_PoV · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sure it has: the proper generic term is GARBAGE. Really, when did ill-considered soundbites from anonymous children ever become news?

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  12. Finally some decency. by Haedrian · · Score: 3

    I'm tired of the 'news' stories pointing out what X said on twitter, and what pictures Y put on facebook related to the news in question.

    I for one hope more people adopt it.

  13. France has stronger anti-ads policy than US by Trigger31415 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Some examples : -Logos of trademarks that appear in music clip (and the rest) must be blurred. -A video announcer cannot promote his own book (example: this can't happen Glen Beck. Oh, and btw, his analysis of the French riots of 2005 is completely false, ofc. Hello FUD). -Trailers of films cannot be broadcast on TV as ads (only during emission about cinema) Generally speaking this comes from the same law: "No Hidden advertising" You have other reglementations, like 'in average, 6min of ads / hr max', and 'no too noisy ads' (wasn't that a recent proposition from Obama?). More recently, it was decided to stop broadcasting of all advertising on gvt-owned TV channels, which usually account for more than 50% of hearing. Whether you like or not those laws, comparing them to the Freedom Fries stuff is stupid, and shows that the author ignores French culture...

  14. High Unemployment in France by mosb1000 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Also, contrast the life of the average Frenchman to ours. They live longer, have more free time, have medical and JOBS.

    Actually, the unemployment rate in France is higher than in the US (9.5% vs. 8.7%), and it is very difficult for young people to find jobs there. If you recall, there was a major bout of riots in 2009 over it, and smaller riots have been occurring since then.

    Just think if we would have followed the French's lead on Iraq, we wouldn't have invaded and wasted trillions of dollars in a war that we get absolutely NOTHING from. Leave it to the Right wingers to smear them after they didn't play ball with them.

    I don't think we should have invaded Iraq (and I didn't think so at the time), but did you know that France had strong economic ties to Iraq at the time that probably contributed to their decision to oppose the war? It would be similar to the US opposing war on Saudi Arabia, or the UAE (which we certainly would). Those kind of decisions are made the same way in France as they are in the US.