Yet Another French Exception:

Abstract

While the CJEU’s decision to establish the right to be forgotten certainly ignited a debate among Western privacy scholars and policymakers hailing from both sides of the Atlantic, no country has participated in the debate with as much fervor as has France. This article addresses the following question: What explains France’s unique sense of urgency with regard to digital right to be forgotten? I argue that extralegal factors rooted in France's enduring antagonism towards US digital hegemony bear most of the explanatory weight. Despite undergoing several shifts in national cybergovernance policy over the years, France has, from the 1970s onward, maintained two core political objectives: first, the rejection of American digital hegemony, and second, a demonstration of French exceptionalism in the cybersphere. Through its support for an extraterritorial right to be forgotten, the nation conveys a political message to its European counterparts and the United States: France is ready and willing to lead the Western resistance against American digital hegemony.