Facebook has accepted allowing French state officials to form part of its censorship committee. So announced French President, Emmanuel Macron.

This announcement was made at an International Forum on the Internet Governance held on 12 November 2018 at UNESCO (Paris). The agreement is that this arrangement between the French Government and Facebook will last for six months.

The fact that the censorship of the net might be controlled by a government even if through a platform like Facebook, poses multiple issues on public freedoms.

The head of Facebook France is Laurent Solly. He was the former chief of staff of cabinet of Nicolas Sarkozy. He then went on to become number 2 in TF1 the private television channel. He is the husband of Caroline Roux, the star journalist of France 2, the public television channel.

Internationally, the Director of Facebook’s public relations is liberal democrat, Nick Clegg. He was the Vice Prime Minister when David Cameron was the British Prime Minister.

Translation
Anoosha Boralessa