French Journalists Can 'Tweet' & 'Poke' But Can't Say Twitter or Facebook

Image via WikipediaCSA, France's media regulator, invites French tv and radio stations to "Tweet" on Twitter and "poke" on Facebook to their heart's content, provided they don't identify the social media platforms by name, according to a Reuters article.

The CSA has no problem with French broadcast journalists urging their audience to visit their social network sites, but citing the commercial brands Twitter and Facebook by name runs afoul of the nation's laws against covert advertising, the Reuters article reports. A widely used French dictionary, however, has added the word "Tweet" to its pages, according to the article.

As far as the CSA is concerned, however, it's voir-le, ne le dites pas (See it, do not say it).