It was to be a shadow role, performed in an austere room of the National Assembly. Paul Midy, general rapporteur of the law “Securing and regulating the digital space” (SREN) adopted at first reading in the Senate at the beginning of the summer, spent the week examining amendments in the special committee, the step which precedes the final presentation of the law and its vote, scheduled for early October. Many of these amendments complement the measures taken by Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, which are rather consensual although technically difficult to implement. Like the anti-scam filter or the mandatory age check for pornographic sites in order to protect minors, which the platforms in question have been dodging for two years.
And then finally, Paul Midy decided to dynamite the debate: “Yes to pseudonymity, but not to anonymity online,” the MP told several radio stations and television channels at the start of the week. Its key idea, tabled in an amendment: make it possible to certify identity on social networks, via a third-party platform, in 2025, and make it compulsory by 2027. Unheard of anywhere in the world. “It is simply a question of transposing real rights to digital: in the street, in a car, we do not have the right to anonymity vis-à-vis the authorities,” he defends to L’Express in a café near the National Assembly. So why not on these online spaces, where insults, homophobia, racial hatred abound, all punishable by law.
If its text was finally withdrawn on Thursday, because it was deemed “unconstitutional” by the government, the Renaissance deputy promises to bring it up again, in a “reworked” form, in the hemicycle. While rallying “other political sides” to the approach. On the right, the initiative pleases Éric Ciotti, the president of the Republicans. Problem: it strongly irritates part of the majority.
“Dissociative anonymity”
Éric Bothorel (Renaissance) and Philippe Latombe (Modem) judged in a Tribune Midy’s proposal “ineffective” and “dangerous”. “This raises the question of the application of such a measure, locally, in a world where the Internet is global, where private giants such as messaging and social networks are international. […] Following this reasoning, I strongly fear that tomorrow we will be forced to tackle encryption. This would be unacceptable”, they continue. These fine digital connoisseurs also object – rightly – that anonymity does not exist on the Internet, our IP address as well as a few fingerprints already make it possible to trace the person hidden behind the screen if necessary.
The deputy for the 5th constituency of Essonne, Paul Midy, is the general rapporteur of the bill “securing and regulating the digital space”
© / AFP
“Indeed, in around 50% of cases, we easily find a person online by a bundle of clues, but otherwise, we do not succeed or in a very complicated way,” Paul Midy retorts, relying on statistics from both Gafam and the Pharos reporting platform. Some use VPNs – virtual private networks – to cover their tracks. This tool was also the subject of an amendment made by another elected official – and immediately rejected – aimed at banning it. But that is not the important thing according to the MP for Essonne, who more specifically targets the “feeling of anonymity”, present among “95% of Internet users” (Editor’s note: a figure impossible to source). The matrix, according to him, of “online violence” and particularly on social networks.
Midy cites the “disinhibition effect” provided by “dissociative anonymity”, as presented by the researcher and professor of psychology John Suller in 2004. “We are inhabited by a feeling of impunity, there are no more limits. It can happen to anyone, we all have the same brains”, he explains, taking as an example atypical profiles judged in cases of cyberharassment. People without criminal records, well integrated into society. In France, the doctor in political science Arnaud Mercier – also cited by the rapporteur – relied on the work of Suler in order to denounce “the wildness of the Web“. “An identity check on social networks will not solve the problems of violence or incitement to hatred 100%, but just a part of it would already be good”, sketches Paul Midy.
The digital identity project
After all, the proposal is part of an era of social media control. The DSA (Digital services act), European legislation already requires major platforms – Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc. – to be more vigilant and to quickly remove illegal content if necessary. A sort of dress rehearsal took place at the time of the death of young Nahel, killed by the police. The executive had ordered, and was granted within hours, the suppression of calls for violence. Emmanuel Macron subsequently called for the construction of a “digital public order”. In another measure of the SREN law, currently being adopted, convicted cyberstalkers may be deprived of social networks for several months. A first, there too. Just like the “digital majority”, which requires social networks to obtain parental authorization when registering a minor aged under 15.
The passage of Paul Midy’s amendment in the Assembly nevertheless remains hypothetical. At the Ministry of Digital Affairs, we politely affirm that the SREN law is not “the time to make this type of decision”. The minister’s entourage refers to the States General of Information, which will begin at the beginning of October, to possibly say a few words about it. But above all, to the work of the European Union (EU) on digital identity. An eIDAS 2.0 service should soon bring together the various digital identity systems deployed by member states. Enough to encourage sites to offer a connection or certification using this tool. Because to date, digital identity remains very little adopted. Only “10% of French people today have one, half of which via the Post Office service”, indicates Paul Midy, mainly to carry out administrative procedures.
The MP tabled another amendment – this time granted – which gives the State the objective of providing 80% of French people with a form digital identity by January 1, 2027, and 100% by the end of the decade. “I am convinced that we will not be able to live without it,” he slips. To pay, sign important documents, and therefore, more contentious, connect to social networks. He concludes the discussion by also referring to the reflections carried out at European level: “A dialogue exists within the EU in order to ask platforms like Meta, TikTok or Twitter to offer this identity certification”. Way of saying that this thorny debate has surely only just begun.