Rémi Jacob, with AFP
modified to
10:30 a.m., June 06, 2023
The High Council for Equality calls for better protection against online violence for women and girls, “greatly forgotten” in the bill to secure and regulate the digital space which arrives in the Senate on Tuesday.
The High Council for Equality calls for better protection against online violence for women and girls, “greatly forgotten” in the bill to secure and regulate the digital space which arrives in the Senate on Tuesday.
The HCE hopes to inspire amendments to the government
Consultative body placed with the Prime Minister, the HCE hopes, with these recommendations, “to inspire amendments to the government and to Parliament” while a special commission will seize the text from Tuesday in the Senate.
The HCE proposes that “the dissemination and hosting of criminal videos presenting, in a non-simulated way, acts of torture and barbarity, inhuman and degrading treatment or rape, be illicit”. He asks that “broadcasters and hosts be subject to heavy financial penalties (up to 6% of turnover)”.
The High Council asks to extend the powers of Pharos “to content presenting acts of torture and barbarity, inhuman and degrading treatment, and rape”. A system dependent on the Ministry of the Interior, Pharos can now block or dereference child pornography and terrorist content on the Internet and report it to the police.
Images deleted at the simple request of the person filmed
On the four main pornographic platforms, the HCE identified in April 2023, 13,898 videos with the keyword “torture” or 70,118 with “anal by surprise”. The HCE proposes that “any image, representation of a minor or a person whose physical appearance is that of a minor of a pornographic nature be prohibited” and this, “regardless of the age of the person filmed”.
Finally, the HCE, which must submit a report on pornography in September, wants pornographic images to be removed at the simple request of the person filmed. “Apart from pornography, degrading or aggressive content against women is increasing on the internet”, according to the HCE, which wishes to oblige platforms to “measure the sexism of their most viewed content in France thanks to a battery of ‘indicators (or to an algorithmic tool) and to make the results public every year”.