Pepé Le Cooper photoshop the kick ass work of Film Drunk.
Looks like it’s time to dust off “freedom fries” and “freedom toast.” The French are sucking again. Citing an antiquated law from 1992, France’s answer to the FCC, the CSA, has banned the usage of the words “Facebook” and “Twitter” from television and radio broadcasts unless it’s used in the context of a news story. Their purported pinko reasoning is to prevent broadcasters and advertisers from showing preferential treatment to certain social media companies over others, like the masses may wake up tomorrow and decide they miss their glittery backgrounds and convert back to MySpace. The actual reasoning more than likely has to do with longstanding unspoken French policy to refrain from promoting things that are overtly American. France’s CSA would apparently prefer the world to think they’re dumb as opposed to petty.
TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis nailed the flawed reasoning:
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.
Personally, I can’t help but think the timing is more than a little coincidental. Less than a week ago star spangled actor Bradley Cooper appeared on France’s TFI, speaking fluent French and creaming underpants across the globe, something the French surely thought no American was capable of. And to retaliate for this shot at their delicate pride — I hypothesize — the French developed this Facebook/Twitter ban to undermine the thing we Americans love most: our social networking (they probably considered targeting McDonald’s but decided they didn’t want to compromise the Royale with Cheese).
The whole thing makes too much sense. Bradley Cooper’s French television interview and the CSA’s own Facebook page below.
On second thought maybe the CSA is just pissed they only have 26 Facebook likes.
Source: Techcrunch