Policy Observatory

Just before the upcoming elections in September, the German government seems eager to push through legislation to rein in internet hate speech, fake news, and also legalise state hacks and police searches of computers and mobile phones against suspects of all kinds.

France has tabled new legislation to quickly take down fake news at election time, its culture minister, Francoise Nyssen, has said. The new "judicial procedure" would "permit us to act very quickly when a fake news story goes viral, particularly during an election period," she told the Journal de Dimanche newspaper. The bill comes after Russian hackers and trolls tried to stop president Emmanuel Macron from getting elected last year.