This week Utalk answers a question from Caroline in Avignon, France on the issue of hate content on the internet: “Lots of hate comments are being published on the internet. How does French and European law envisage dealing with this? <br /><br /> The answer is from Benoît Louvet, a lawyer wit LICRA (International League Against Racism and Antisemitism):<br />“Internet users should know that these hateful comments are criminal offences, as much as physical violence, for example.These offences are punishable in France by up to a year in prison and 45,000 euros in fines.<br /><br /> “In Europe there’s a directive effective in national legislation which provides for two things. The first is that it asks service providers to put in place mechanisms allowing the user to report hate content.<br /><br /> “The second thing is that the website hosting providers, including social networks, have to remove illegal content reported to them by Internet users or face being held liable.<br /><br /> “In that case it will be down to the moderator
