French state employees have been banned from using the terms clickbait, fake news or spoiler in the latest offensive by the country’s language police against the encroachment of English.
French equivalents have been stipulated by the Commission for the Enrichment of the French Language, which reports to the prime minister.
Its latest edicts, covering 19 terms and published in the state’s Journal Officiel, impose the use of the French versions in written and spoken communication in public administration. State broadcasters are also bound by the orders.
Undaunted by decades of failure to hold back the tide of “franglais”, the commission has mainly opted for long-winded formal French, which is mocked on social media.
Its translation romance urbaine fails to convey the snappy concision of
