Facebook banned on TV and radio in France

Curious news emerging from France: terms like Twitter and Facebook have been banned on TV and radio, if pronounced or displayed during informational programs.
This is not a joke or sensationalist news, but a precise directive from local authorities. Nothing new in France: the decision was made based on a law dating back to 1992, a regulation that prohibits the promotion of brands and commercial enterprises in television or radio contexts, as otherwise, one would find themselves in an unpleasant situation that in Italy we would define as covert advertising.
To refer to Facebook and Twitter, therefore, generic terms or synonyms must be used, for example, the expression “social network” in a broad sense.
Christine Kelly, spokesperson for the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel in Paris, explained that – although these are realities increasingly widespread in everyone’s life – naming Facebook rather than another “minor” social network would lead to a distortion of competition, to the detriment of smaller but still existing web realities.
This measure therefore represents the end of the concluding messages of some programs that, until now, invited viewers to stay in touch by subscribing to the Facebook page (or Twitter) of the broadcast, thus avoiding a sort of covert advertising that will no longer be tolerated. The same will apply to on-screen messages.
Unless it is a real advertisement or a specific news item, Facebook and Twitter must stay away – at least as terms – from French TV and radio.