A citizen petition demanding the abolition of the Arcom was put online on July 24 on the site of the National Assembly. Since its publication, it has already exceeded 2,000 signatures, a rapidly growing figure since Wednesday, July 30, when it was relayed by several influential accounts on the social network X.
Its initiator, Arnaud Borderie, denounces the operating cost of the audiovisual and digital communication regulatory authority, which it estimates at nearly 50 million euros per year. He also criticizes the role of the Arcom, which issues the frequency exploitation authorizations for radios and televisions, accusing him of not meeting the expectations of the French in matters of diversity of content and sensitivities represented. To illustrate his point, he quotes the closure of the C8 channel – which he describes as “Democratic scandal, not to say a state” – occurred on February 28, at the same time as that of NRJ12. As a reminder, the flagship program of the old 8th TNT chain, Touche not at my post (TPMP), hosted by Cyril Hanouna, gathered around 1.5 million viewers daily. According to the author of the petition, this eviction marks “A turn towards cultural and intellectual dictatorship, that of the moralization of thought and media formatting”.
The petition platform of the National Assembly allows citizens to submit and support proposals addressed to the lower room of Parliament. Each petition is allocated to one of the eight competent permanent commissions. That aimed at the abolition of the Arcom was therefore oriented towards the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education. If a petition collects at least 100,000 signatures, it can be put forward on the assembly site and be the subject of a parliamentary debate or be classified without follow -up.
Right figures want to drop the Arch
Certain political figures have already spoken in favor of the abolition of audiovisual authority. Among them, Éric Ciotti and Sarah Knafo. The president of the UDR declared in February 2025 that he would have “Favorite that the Arch is removed rather than C8”. For the record, in 2022, the Arcom had a budget of 46.6 million euros and had 355 agents. The cost of this organization is one of the arguments put forward by Arnaud Borderie, while the government aims to achieve budgetary savings.
Éric Ciotti would have preferred to be removed “Arch rather than C8”
Note that this initiative intervenes in a context of renewed interest in citizen petitions, as evidenced by that recently submitted against the promulgation of the DUPLOM law, which has collected more than two million signatures.