France bans use of the word 'hashtag'

Well this is #weird.

In an attempt by the French government to preserve the purity of the native language, the word 'hashtag' has been officially banned from all social media networks. Apparently they're sick to death of English phrases cropping up more frequently.

They are trying to get users to try the word 'mot-dièse' instead, which translates as 'sharp word' in English.

The Commission Générale de Terminologie et de Néologisme, aka the French language police, previously banned the word 'e-mail' back in 2003 while the French broadcast authority limited mentions of Facebook and Twitter to purely integral situations.

It's not gone down massively well with French Twitter users, especially since the new term actually refers to the musical use of the word sharp, as shown with this similar symbol: ♯.

Let's all boycott déjà vu yeah? Yeah?

[via Time]

(Image: Shutterstock)