French take sometimes unexpected if not incomprehensible decisions. Last example to date? Banning the words ‘Twitter‘ and ‘Facebook‘ from television and radio. For the law (according to a 1992 decree) mentioning services (such as Twitter or Facebook) by name is an act of advertising. Even though France’s Conseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) disagrees.

TechCrunch writes about this ban:

Instead of referring to specific social networking pages, like saying “Find us at Facebook.com/Audi” or follow us on “Twitter.com/Pepsi” brands will have to skirt around the issue, saying things like “Find us on social networking sites!,” or directing viewers to their community pages and hoping that viewers will just pick up on where to go.

On the HuffPost Tech, we can read:

Ex-pat blogger Matthew Fraser attributed the new restrictions to traditional French protectionism when it comes to the spread of American culture. “Facebook and Twitter are, of course, American social networks,” he wrote. “In France, they are regarded — at least implicitly — as symbols of Anglo-Saxon global dominance — along with Apple, MTV, McDonald’s, Hollywood, Disneyland, and other cultural juggernauts. That there is a deeply-rooted animosity in the French psyche towards Anglo-Saxon cultural domination cannot be disputed.”

We think this decision is not justified but we don’t agree with Fraser’s point of view on the reason of the ban. We don’t think there is ‘a deeply-rooted animosity in the French psyche towards Anglo-Saxon cultural domination cannot be disputed’. This is an administrative decision about indirect advertisem­ent which concerns all companies, not only American ones…

We agree it is absurd to prohibit direct reference to Twitter and Facebook but again, it has nothing to do with the symbols of Anglo-Saxon global dominance! What do you think?