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French broadcasters barred from saying "Facebook" or "Twitter" on air

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Sunday, June 5, 2011

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The French institution of regulation of broadcasting media has recently prohibited the use of the words "Facebook" and "Twitter" on television or radio broadcasts; except where these social networks are a central part of a news report.

The regulation, issued by the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA), cites a 1992 statute governing the relationship between journalists and advertising, sponsorship, and "teleshopping". Mentioning the words "Facebook" or "Twitter" on air, in the eyes of the CSA, constitutes "clandestine advertising". CSA spokesperson Christine Kelly explained her organization's desire to set a level playing field when it comes to social networking: "Why give preference to Facebook, which is worth billions of dollars, when there are many other social networks that are struggling for recognition," she said. "This would be a distortion of competition. If we allow Facebook and Twitter to be cited on air, it's opening a Pandora’s Box — other social networks will complain to us saying, 'why not us?'"

Broadcasters now may not tell their listeners to "find us on Facebook", but rather "find us on social networks". However, they would still be allowed to name the social networking sites when either is involved in a news story.

Business Insider contributor Matthew Fraser sees this action as a form of animosity towards US culture: "Facebook and Twitter are, of course, American social networks. In France, they are regarded — at least implicitly — as symbols of Anglo-Saxon global dominance — along with Apple, MTV, McDonald’s, Hollywood, Disneyland, and other cultural juggernauts. That there is a deeply-rooted animosity in the French psyche towards Anglo-Saxon cultural domination cannot be disputed; indeed, it has been documented and analysed for decades. Sometimes this cultural resentment finds expression in French regulations and laws, frequently described, and often denounced, by foreigners as protectionism."

CNET's Chris Matyszczyk, on the other hand, suspects that Frenchmen will hardly miss the explicit references to social networks tacked onto the end of broadcasts. "I am confident that not one single French citizen will miss the now standard cliche at the end of each broadcast entreating every viewer to please keep in contact with the news station on one or other of the American social networks."


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  This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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