France: Issued Constitutional Council Decision 866/2024 on Bill Securing and Regulating the Digital Space declaring unconstitutional Article 19 regarding criminalisation of "online insult"

On 17 May 2024, the Constitutional Council issued its Decision on Bill Securing and Regulating the Digital Space. The Council declared Article 19, which aimed to criminalise the offence of "online insult" by punishing its dissemination when it violates a person's dignity or is insulting, degrading, humiliating, intimidating, hostile or offensive towards them, as unconstitutional. The Council ruled that what qualifies as an "online insult" is based on subjective elements related to the perception of the victim, which constituted a disproportionate infringement on freedom of expression in a way that was unnecessary given existing laws against abusive speech. Additionally, the Council annulled four more articles, as they were inappropriately introduced into the law in violation of procedural rules. Article 10 would have set an objective for 100% of French people to have access to a free digital identity by January 1, 2027. Article 11 would have established a secure service aggregating access to all national/local public services and organisations to simplify administrative procedures. Article 18 would have established an experimental 3-year system for mediating online communication disputes between users and online social network services through agreements between associations and social networks. Finally, Article 58 would have modified provisions in the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration related to Article L.311-8 regarding requests involving interconnected databases or refused requests.