'Facebook,' 'Twitter' Banned from French News

A 1992 law says that telling the audience to check out a show's Twitter feed counts as advertising and has no place in news broadcasts.

France, noted purveyor of questionable bans, will no longer allow television or radio news broadcasts to talk about their Facebook or Twitter accounts. The Sarkozy government said the ban is based on a 1992 ruling that forbids promoting commercial enterprises during news programs unless they are reporting on the enterprise itself. French broadcasters will now be fined if they urge listeners or viewers to “follow them on Twitter” or “like them on Facebook." But, so long as they don't mention the specific brands, they can still tell audiences to “check them out online” or “visit us on the two best-known social networks whose names we're banned from saying.”