French Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSL) has passed legislature which will ban the words "Facebook" and "Twitter" from television and radio advertisements. Set in place to eradicate corporate favoritism, French TV networks will have to replace this endorsement with a more neutral, "Follow our social networking sites." The ban, however, does not extend to news stories as they are still allowed to refer to the sites by name.
Christine Kelly, a spokesperson for the CSL begs the question:
"Why give preference to Facebook, which is worth billions of dollars, when there are many other social networks that are struggling for recognition? [...] This would be a distortion of competition."
Wether this is absurd bureaucracy or a unbiased leveling of the playing field, only time will tell.