A French Constitutional Court to the Innerwebs Rescue

Who would have ever thought that in today's ultra-regulated Europe it would be the French riding to the rescue of innerwebs freedom?

But that's exactly what happened, and, even more amazingly, on something that was lame-canard French President Emmanuel Macron's personal baby - a social media ban for the under-15 set.

These things have been all the rage lately, and the unelected empress of Europe, Ursula Von der Leyen, has been hell-bent for leather trying to enact one for two years now.

She thought she had it in the bag with a sneak attack at the beginning of July.

BREAKING:

The European Parliament just passed Chat Control 1.0

A proposal to stop the new law, which will allow big tech companies to voluntarily scan all private messages, needed an absolute majority of 361 voted but received only 314 votes.

As it was the last day before… pic.twitter.com/YPZGM7FHRe

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) July 9, 2026

...As it was the last day before summer recess, many MEPs had returned to their home countries and didn’t take part in the surprise vote. Chat Control 2.0 is still being prepared. That law will make it mandatory to scan people’s private messages.

FOR THE CHILDREN

Now, these social media 'bans' are nothing for the kids to circumvent, even though they are meant to ban them from accessing specific sites.

Telling a kid no is all the challenge they need.

'Watch how quick this is. I've done it.'

Tech correspondent @WillGuyatt shows @NickFerrariLBC just how fast people can get around Keir Starmer's newly-announced social media ban for under-16s. pic.twitter.com/E3ZFmcVsi9

— LBC (@LBC) June 15, 2026

As you probably suspected, the whole point isn't the children at all, but to force adults to prove they're not fifteen-year-olds and thereby collect their information and track their usage, all under the guise of protecting children.

Encrypted messaging channels like WhatsApp and Signal are also required to hand over all their data when this goes into effect.

FOR THE CHILDREN

So blatantly obvious.

What was even worse about Macron's bill is that he was piggybacking on and building on top of the hoodwink the EU had pulled with even more intrusive regulations.

Emmanuel Macron secured a signature second-term victory Tuesday after France's parliament approved a law barring children under 15 from using social media.

“I had promised to do this, and it has now been passed: social media will be banned for under-15s when the new school year begins,” the French president wrote on X.

The move means France will become the first EU country to introduce such a ban. From Sept. 1, platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat will be required to implement age-verification tools to prevent children under 15 from accessing their services.

Lawmakers on Monday finalized the legislation after agreeing to amend it so that the European Commission will oversee key aspects of its implementation. The change, required to ensure compliance with EU law, clears the way for the measure to take effect by the end of August.

When the legislature passed it, it had to go to the French Constitutional Council for a final blessing, and, to everyone in the government's horror, the court said, 'non.' 

France's highest court just killed the under-15 social media ban.

The problem was never the kids. It was that to prove a user isn't 15, every adult in France has to prove they aren't. The Constitutional Council called that a disproportionate hit to free expression with no…

— Reclaim The Net (@ReclaimTheNetHQ) August 14, 2026

...that a disproportionate hit to free expression with no safeguards for private life. It was blocked three weeks before it took effect. 

Macron has already ordered a rewrite.

The court stood up unequivocally for freedom of expression and the right to privacy in two of its first four paragraphs, and also gave a shout-out to parental rights in determining what's in the best interests of their child.

...3. The members of parliament who filed the first referral, joined by those who filed the second, criticize these provisions for establishing a blanket ban on access to social media for all minors below a certain age threshold, without distinction between the services concerned, particularly based on their nature, functionalities, the risks they generate, or the safeguards that can be provided. According to them, such a ban is neither necessary, appropriate, nor proportionate to the objective pursued, while other, less restrictive measures would protect minors. Thus, these provisions infringe upon minors' freedom of expression and communication and are, moreover, tainted by a failure to exercise jurisdiction. Furthermore, they argue that this ban deprives those with parental authority of the opportunity to assess the appropriateness of their child's access to certain services, thereby failing to protect the best interests of the child.

4. Furthermore, the applicant Members of Parliament note that such a ban would, in itself, necessitate the implementation of technical procedures to verify the identity of social media users in order to ascertain their age. They criticize the absence of any legislative provision governing the processing of this sensitive data and specifying the responsible parties and the technical methods of this verification. In doing so, they argue, the legislature exceeded its powers and deprived the right to respect for private life, as well as freedom of expression and communication, of legal safeguards.

What is really the kicker here, and quite frankly delightful to contemplate, is that it also throws a wrench in Von der Leyen's plans to begin implementing their Chat Control scheme. The French had rushed this through to be first, with a couple of other countries on deck to follow shortly, and now, dang it.

Frankreichs Verfassungsrat fährt Ursula von der Leyen in die Parade: Keine Identitätskontrolle beim Zugang ins Internet erlaubt. Damit fällt Leyens Plan der flächendeckenden Internetüberwachung ins Wasser. Und das europaweit. Bemerkenswert, dass Frankreich stoppt während das…

— Roland Tichy (@RolandTichy) August 14, 2026

France's Constitutional Council steps in front of Ursula von der Leyen: No identity checks allowed for internet access. This causes Leyen's plan for blanket internet surveillance to fall flat. And that across Europe. Remarkable that France puts on the brakes while the Federal Constitutional Court cowers.

'Constitutional freedoms' blah blah blah are spoiling the Brahmin authoritarian party again. What if uppity other member governments get the same crazy ideas?

FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOM IS NOT SPECIFIC TO FRANCE

...Peter Craddock, a senior Brussels-based attorney advising social media firms, said the French court decision could have far-reaching implications.

"What they're basically saying here is: 'Listen, government, if you want to get this to succeed, you can't just work on the basis of a general ban. There have to be limitations," said Craddock, a partner at Keller & Heckman. "There have to be ways for people to say, 'well, actually, in my case, my son, my daughter is of a certain degree of maturity and is able to use this properly.'"

The government bill had passed through the French legislative procedure after a lengthy back-and-forth earlier this summer. It was set to bring forward Europe's first social media age restrictions, with Greece and Denmark planning to follow suit.

...Craddock warned the court's judgment may not bode well for other national bans or restrictions coming from the European Commission, since the decision is framed around fundamental rights, which are harmonized across the bloc.

"The reasoning is actually equally relevant internationally,  throughout the EU, because this fundamental freedom is not specific to France," he said.

Macron, for his part, is in a mad, desperate dash to push through a ban combined with this data-harvesting scheme for the EU before the presidential elections next spring, especially with the very long shadow of Marine Le Pen hanging over them as the possible next president.

This was French President Macron’s response after the introduction of Bill C-34’s social media ban for under-16s, thanking Canada for "joining the movement”. The French Constitutional Court has started a new movement by declaring the ban unconstitutional.https://t.co/ZBenSB5k4h pic.twitter.com/dILhJhlRz1

— Michael Geist (@mgeist) August 17, 2026

Macron knows damned well an innerwebs ban goes the way of the dodo if she's elected.

...Macron, who in April urged teenagers to turn off their devices and read in order to become better citizens, has asked the French prime ‌minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to rework the legislation to address the constitutional council’s concerns, according to the Élysée.

The Élysée said Macron remained determined for the reform to take effect before spring 2027, when France holds its presidential election. Macron is ineligible to stand for a third term.

Who woulda thunk there were still personal freedom types on any court in Europe?

This is a very good thing.

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