14 DAY TRIAL // French law makes it a violation to publish election results before the ballots close in an effort not to skew opinions. But the law was created more than three decades ago when there were few who had the ability to speak of these things to any significant number of people.
But with Facebook, Twitter and everything in between, anyone can have their voice heard. The law applies to Twitter of course and carries a hefty fine, but did little to stop those talking about the elections as they took place yesterday.
They did not speak of them openly, but used codes and the hashtag #radiolondres, a name of significance for France, it was the name of the BBC broadcast in occupied France during WWII through which info and orders were issued to the French resistance in code.
The two candidates left in the second round of voting had appropriate codenames, current but soon-to-be-former president Nicolas Sarkozy was referred to as Rolex, for wealth, while his opponent François Hollande was nicknamed Gouda, though these were hardly the only names used.
Some tweets referred to them as the mayors of Élysée Palace, the official residence of France's president, others used € figures instead of percentage numbers. It made little difference though, anyone was able to keep up with poll reports and estimates, in near real time during the entire day of voting.
All of this while traditional news sources, the TV stations, radios, even established news sites were unable to publish any info.
There have been plenty of examples of the power of Twitter, and other online communication platforms, but this underlines once again just how much the world has changed in a couple of decades. And it underlines that laws, even ones that make sense, have to change if it's no longer feasible to uphold them.