France

Overview

Internet use in France is largely free and unrestricted. Content is generally unfiltered, with limited exceptions for child pornography or materials that promote terrorism, racial violence or hatred. Recent legislation regarding copyright infringement and child pornography, however, has been criticized by privacy advocates and by the EU parliament.

Access

Since 2000, France has witnessed a significant increase in Internet access, with one in five residents having access to high-speed Internet. In 2012, 83 percent of the population used the Internet. According to a May 2012 study, French Internet users spent 3.16 hours a day online, slightly lower than the European average of 4 hours. According to Alexa, the most frequently visited websites include Google France, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Orange France Webmail, LinkedIn, and Leboncoin, a free online classified ad site.

Control

French Internet users generally enjoy broad Internet freedom apart from limited filtering of hate speech regarding race, religion or sexual orientation. However, the 2009 HADOPI law—also known as the “three strikes” or “graduated response” legislation—related to copyright infringement raised concerns for its potential to deny French Internet users access to the Internet. The law was overturned in 2013, but a related law, known as “Loppsi 2,” was adopted in 2011. It authorizes the blocking of sites accused of disseminating child pornography without a court order. Taken together, these legislative moves have raised concerns among Internet activists that the Internet filtering intended to catch child pornographers and copyright violators could also be used to censor other material.

Activity

Unlike countries such as China and Russia, where large blogging and microblogging communities have formed, there are few indicators of a robust blogging community in France, especially around political issues. However, online grassroots movements did draw attention to and advocate against the aforementioned passing of digital copyright infringement laws.

Since 2000, France has witnessed a significant increase in Internet access, with one in five residents having access to high-speed Internet. In 2012, 83 percent of the population used the Internet. According to a May 2012 study, French Internet users spent 3.16 hours a day online, slightly lower than the European average of 4 hours. According to Alexa, the most frequently visited websites include Google France, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Orange France Webmail, LinkedIn, and Leboncoin, a free online classified ad site.

French Internet users generally enjoy broad Internet freedom apart from limited filtering of hate speech regarding race, religion or sexual orientation. However, the 2009 HADOPI law—also known as the “three strikes” or “graduated response” legislation—related to copyright infringement raised concerns for its potential to deny French Internet users access to the Internet. The law was overturned in 2013, but a related law, known as “Loppsi 2,” was adopted in 2011. It authorizes the blocking of sites accused of disseminating child pornography without a court order. Taken together, these legislative moves have raised concerns among Internet activists that the Internet filtering intended to catch child pornographers and copyright violators could also be used to censor other material.

Unlike countries such as China and Russia, where large blogging and microblogging communities have formed, there are few indicators of a robust blogging community in France, especially around political issues. However, online grassroots movements did draw attention to and advocate against the aforementioned passing of digital copyright infringement laws.