France to ban the words 'Twitter' and 'Facebook' on TV, radio

French government on Monday said that it will enforce a law that will ban the use of the words ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ on television and radio programs, the Daily Mail reported.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's colleagues have agreed to support a 1992 verdict which specifies that commercial enterprises should not be promoted on any news programs or on radio.

Broadcasting anchors would be forbidden to use the names of the social networking sites and the micro blogging phenomenon, unless it is relevant to a news item.

By preventing French news broadcasters from mentioning the words ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ means that the radio and television stations will not be able to insist their listeners or viewers to 'follow us on Twitter', a local media reported.

According to TechCrunch, they will only be able to provide vague instructions, such as 'find us on social networking sites', because of the 1992 law.

Christine Kelly, spokesperson for France’s regulator of broadcasting Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA), believes that the government is right in implementing this law.

“Why give preference to Facebook, which is worth billions of dollars, when there are many other social networks that are struggling for recognition?” Kelly said, according to the reports.