We sought legal advice, and unfortunately discovered that French law, specifically Article 6-I-7 of the Loi pour la Confiance dans l’Économie Numérique (LCEN), might actually require us to respond and apply blocking measures, at least for French users.

That said, this whole situation shows just how inadequate this regulation is. Such decisions should be made by a court — a private company shouldn’t have to decide what counts as “illegal” content under threat of legal action.

Good ol’ European governments exerting legitimate authority to protect civil liberties & information freedom. At least they had enough sense to stipulate penalties for manipulative reports:

Art. 6-I-4 LCEN:

4. Any person who presents content or activity to the persons referred to in paragraph 2 as being illegal with the aim of having it removed or its dissemination stopped, when they know this information to be inaccurate, shall be punished by one year’s imprisonment and a fine of €15,000.