French government has been blocked by Twitter

A social media campaign from the French government has been blocked by Twitter – because of the government’s own anti-fake-news law.

Since December, France requires online political campaigns to declare who paid for them, and how much was spent.

But now Twitter has rejected a government voter registration campaign.

The company could not find a solution to obey the letter of the new law, officials said – and opted to avoid the potential problem altogether.

The #OuiJeVote (Yes, I Vote) campaign encouraged voters to register for the European elections ahead of the deadline.

It was operated by the French government information service, which had planned to pay for sponsored tweets, according to news agency AFP.

Twitter’s refusal to take money from the state to promote the message baffled many in France. One MP, Naïma Moutchou, tweeted: “I thought it was an April Fools!”

Interior Minister Christophe Castanter also took to the platform to express frustration with the decision.

“Twitter’s priority should be to fight content that glorifies terrorism. Not campaigns to register on the electoral lists of a democratic republic.”

Read the rest of this article from the BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47800418

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *