France will enact legislation in 2018 to combat the spread of “fake news,” President Emmanuel Macron announced Wednesday.
During an annual message to the media, Macron said the legislation would be used especially during election periods and would largely target social media platforms, saying that if people wanted “to protect liberal democracies, we must have strong legislation.”
Further details of the legislation would follow, the President said, but his message was clear — that democracy was under threat and that it needed urgent protection.
“You will never hear me speaking ill of the press,” Macron said.
Macron and his campaign accused Russia and its state-owned media of interfering in the French presidential election in 2017.