evidence: Several social media users have claimed that France has made it illegal to criticize COVID-19 vaccines. This claim has surfaced in light of a bill on "sectarian abuses" passed by the French National Assembly on February 14. One post on X(formerly Twitter) sharing the claim amassed over 417,000 views (archived here) at the time of writing. The post claimed that anyone who advises against mRNA, the technology used in popular COVID vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, can in the future be imprisoned in France for up to three years or receive a fine of up to 45,000 euros. "This law means person/s can be fined up to €45,000 or in-prisoned up to 3 years for any criticizing or opposing mRNA Lipid Nanotechnology injections or treatment," said another post on X (archived here) viewed more than 150,000 times. Similar claims about the new French bill were also shared on TikTok (archived here). Several such posts include a screenshot of a blog post (archived here), originally in German, headlined "France: Criticism of mRNA will be punishable in the future." The post was published on the blog, which usually shares updates on science and politics, on February 15.