A poll published Sunday found that 92% of French people agree with blocking people and websites for hate speech.

France’s Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) held a conference Sunday on how to tackle online hate speech, while a poll published the same day revealed that an overwhelming majority of French people back measures to curb racist and anti-Semitic material easily found on social media networks and websites.

Advertising Read more

“Nowadays when you type on YouTube search bar Shoah – Holocaust – the first videos you come across are Holocaust denial videos,” said Nicolas Woloszko, the treasurer for the Union of Jewish Students, which organised Sunday’s conference in Paris.

This can pose particular problems, he continued, when young students turn to online resources to find out about the Holocaust and what they find is contrary to what they’re learning in school.

“The most fundamental values of the French republic are challenged by alternative ideas, such as holocaust denial, anti-Semitism or racism and this is a very big problem for us,” he said.

France has strong laws against hate speech, anti-Semitism and statements that glorify terrorism. However, when it comes to the realm of the online world, Woloszko says these laws, which in his opinion do not infringe on freedom of expression, are easily forgotten when they are not applied online.

In fact, most French people are in favour of blocking users and cracking down on the Internet’s inherent culture of anonymity, according to a survey commissioned by Opinionway for the conference and published Sunday in the Journal du Dimanche.

The poll, which was conducted in February with a sample of over 1,000 people aged 18 and up, revealed that 92% of French people agree with blocking or removing links to websites that host material that advocates for terrorism.

Additionally, 89% were in favour of seeing Internet firms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter have broader control over content.

Likewise, a large majority would like to see a system of fines for those who spread hate messages (83%) and the same amount of people also espouse that the ability to post content anonymously online promotes hateful comments.

“We are students. We use Twitter, Facebook everyday of our lives so we are very keen on preserving freedom of expression,” Woloszko said. “But freedom of expression is not the right to say everything. That’s not how it works.”

Nevertheless, half of French people have faced racism online (51%), including anti-Muslim (49%), homophobic and xenophobic (45%) and anti-Semitic (43%) remarks.

The UJEF also believes that by cracking down on what can be said online would have a strong effect offline.

“I think that our best way to fight against racism and anti-Semitism is to constantly repeat that it is forbidden,” Woloszko said, “anti-Semitism and racism are not opinions, they are misdemeanours and they must also be forbidden from the Internet.”

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning Subscribe