Emmanuel Macron announces plans for ‘fake news’ law

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that the French government will take steps to combat fake news. He said that tougher rules on social media need to be imposed to combat the deliberate misinformation that is spreading across the Internet. ‘We will develop our legal system to protect democracy from this fake news’, he said. According to Macron’s plan, judges will be able to block a website or account, especially in the context of an election, and force Internet platforms to reveal the names behind sponsored content. The announcement was met with opposition, critics claiming that it could pose a threat to civil liberties. ‘Only authoritarian regimes try to control what the truth is,’ said a conservative senator. Twitter users expressed their discontent under the hashtag #InventeDesFakeNews (or InventYourFakeNews).