In a ruling last week, France's CSA (the national regulator for broadcasting fairness) decided that broadcasters could no longer cite social networking sites Twitter and Facebook by name unless the reference was specifically associated with a news item about those sites. Instead, broadcasters must refer to all such sites equally as "social media".

France is known for being strict regarding online issues, including copyright protection. This ruling is part of an effort to eliminate "secret advertising", a practice that was banned by a French law passed in 1992. Not surprisingly, French bloggers and media have been critical of the CSA regulation.

I would direct you to some of their comments, but that might get me in trouble with French authorities...