PARIS — The sexting scandal that brought down one of President Emmanuel Macron’s closest allies has prompted French lawmakers to call for a crackdown on social media.

A small group of Macron’s La République En Marche (LREM) MPs will mull over a legislative initiative “in the coming months” to improve regulation, MP Bruno Bonnell told POLITICO.

LREM candidate for Paris mayor Benjamin Griveaux stepped down last week after sexually explicit content attributed to him went viral, thanks to mass sharing through social media accounts and online groups largely using pseudonyms.

Politicians from all sides of the spectrum expressed support for Griveaux, condemning social media and heavily critisizing the infringement of privacy.

“It is high time to regulate the torrents of mud that pour out on social media,” tweeted Conservative Gérard Larcher, president of the Senate.

LREM party members have castigated the “deviances that anonymity allows,” in Bonnell’s words, “like slander or defamation.”

“The next three weeks will be quite busy due to the pension reform vote but we will re-discuss [the legislative framework for regulating social media] for sure in April,” he added, referring to informal talks within LREM ranks.

Some of the party’s most senior members — including President of the LREM’s group at the Assembly Gilles Le Gendre, President of the Assembly Richard Ferrand, Griveaux’ spokesman Sylvain Maillard and former Minister of Ecological Transition François de Rugy — have made clear that they support strengthening internet regulation in interviews on national network LCI, le JDD newspaper and Europe 1 radio.

MPs have also approached the French government to discuss new proposals, one such member told POLITICO.

French law has prevented full anonymity since 2004, forcing digital service providers to hold data that “allows the identification of anyone who contributed to the creation of content or one of the contents of the services for which they are providers.”

The publication online of private images has also been punishable by law since 2016; individuals are subject to a two-year prison sentence and a fine of €60,000 for distributing this type of content, with an increase in severity for invasions of privacy of a sexual nature. A sentence was already pronounced in November 2018.

The scandal emerged as Parliamentarians process a draft hate speech law for final adoption in the spring.

Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski — the author of the blog post that made the material public — was charged on Tuesday evening for infringement of privacy and publication of sexual content without consent. Alexandra de Taddeo, reportedly the initial recipient of the explicit images and Pavlenski’s girlfriend, was also charged.

Pseudonyms in the crosshairs

There are three priorities, according to Bruno Bonnell, for new measures on social media regulation.

Firstly, filing complaints against accounts using pseudonyms should be facilitated. “When a red line has been crossed,” he said, “one should be able to know who to sue.” He underlined, however, that he is “under no circumstances against the use of pseudonyms.”

Such a proposal would mean that platforms would have to cooperate even more closely with law enforcement authorities.

The tech entrepreneur also suggested the creation of a hotline to help victims of diverse cyber threats, as they “often ignore what can be done with our sophisticated [legal] framework.”

Thirdly, he said, “some resources must be redistributed and methods reviewed to better support victims.”

It remains unclear which legislative vehicle would make these measures possible.

The draft hate speech law has already raised controversy in the Senate, where, according to Senator Philippe Bas of the conservative Les Républicains, it was declared “contrary to EU law and unbalanced to the detriment of freedom of expression.”

The European Commission is no fan of the bill either; it sent a letter in November warning Paris that it wasn’t fully compatible with EU law, and asked for it to be postponed.

Should this legislation pass, platforms such as Google and Facebook would be required to remove flagged hate speech content within 24 hours.

After the Griveaux scandal, MP Laetitia Avia — who is the rapporteur of the hate speech bill — and National Assembly President Richard Ferrand suggested that the Senate should lower its critics against the legislation, which centers around freedom of expression debates.

Asked whether she had been contacted by other MPs to work on new amendments to the bill, Avia told POLITICO that she had “no information” about such proposals.

Enforcement issue

Cédric O, France’s junior minister for Digital Affairs, said that the country already has a consistent amount of privacy laws. The online anonymity condemned by many politicians in recent days, he added, is not at the heart of the issue.

“The lifting of anonymity is not the right solution,” he told French network Paris Première. “I don’t think our society needs more inquisition; what we need is to enforce the law, both online and offline, and effectively punish those who fail to comply with it.”

Click Here: Golf special

Benjamin Bayart, from Digital Liberties NGO La Quadrature du Net told 28 minutes: “The fact that we don’t apply the law is a question of financial means given to the justice [system]. It is also a problem that many police officers don’t have the capacity to investigate such issues.”

France could face some difficulties at the European level; in a non-binding opinion, the Advocate General at the European Court of Justice last month said there should be limits on data retention for law enforcement purposes.

A EU proposal on cross-border access to electronic evidence (e-evidence) is also in limbo, which could hinder the identification of anonymous accounts.

Want more analysis from POLITICO? POLITICO Pro is our premium intelligence service for professionals. From financial services to trade, technology, cybersecurity and more, Pro delivers real time intelligence, deep insight and breaking scoops you need to keep one step ahead. Email [email protected] to request a complimentary trial.