Audiovisual regulatory authorities have taken Internet service providers to court to request blocking of access to websites broadcasting violent content. A first for Arcom.
Arcom is running rampant again. The audiovisual and digital communications regulatory authority has taken Internet service providers to court with the aim of blocking the “WatchPeopleDie.tv” (“Watch People Die”) site that allows users to watch videos of dying individuals around the world, as revealed by the economic media l’Informed.
As confirmed by Arcom to Le Parisien, the authorities have taken Bouygues Télécom, Free, Free Mobile, Orange, SFR and SFR Fiber to court to order them to block access to these platforms. If suppliers do not comply with this obligation, they will be subject to a fine of 1,000 euros per day of delay.
“Arcom confirms that it has requested the blocking of the WatchPeopleDie site, which is entirely dedicated to the spread of prohibited content, violence that harms human dignity, under article 6-3 of the law on trust in the digital economy (LCEN). » This is the first time that Arcom has used this article of the law to request the blocking of a site.
Adopted in 2004, this law specifically allows for “blocking access to controversial sites,” such as pornographic sites or illegal sports streaming sites.
Over 4 million users and mass murder videos
According to Arcom, the legal summons “follows the request (from the site) deletion of three videos (broadcast on Watch the Dead) shows acts of torture and barbarism, a request issued by the Office of Anti-Crime (OFAC) and remains unanswered.
Created in 2012, the Watch People Die site claims more than 4.4 million registered users. A presentation post on the site says that “the existence of this platform is based on a certain fascination: morbid curiosity and a desire to confront the reality of death in a raw way.”
You can find it all in Watch People Die: suicides, decapitations, drownings, and even electrocution. Certain videos are highlighted, such as the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the suicide of Budd Dwyer during a press conference in 1987, or the mass murders in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Buffalo, in the United States.
In March 2019, the subreddit r/watchpeopledie, with over 400,000 subscribers, was banned from the forum, after publications on the channel contained footage from the massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand, which left 51 people dead at two mosques, in March 2019.
“Echo chambers that trivialize violence”
According to the American NGO, the Anti-Defamation League, which analyzed content on the Watch People Die website, users, especially younger users, “may access extremist content and images of extreme violence, which risks desensitizing them and increasing the risk of ideologically motivated violence.”
Still, according to experts, “extremist content is widely available on these platforms, including videos of massacres carried out by white supremacist and anti-Semitic groups.”
Additionally, the Watch People Die website has appeared in at least two shooting investigations in the United States. According to the ADL, the killers were exposed for several months to extremist content, including videos of massacres carried out by white supremacist groups. For the ADL, the video platform acts “like an echo chamber that trivializes violence, bloodshed and white supremacy.”
