France said Thursday it is toughening its online abuse laws after an outcry over young media executives who ran a macho "boys' club" that hounded female colleagues.

Eight journalists and public relations executives who belonged to the "League of LOL" Facebook group have either been suspended or stepped down this week since they were accused of targeting feminists and minority colleagues online.

The affair is being dubbed the "French media's #MeToo", with the closed group condemned for bullying women online with pornographic memes and off-colour jokes about rape culture.

France's Digital Affairs Minister Mounir Mahjoubi said the government was considering changing the legal status of social media to make them face up to their responsibilities.

"It's unacceptable to have them dictating the rules all by themselves," he told Le Figaro newspaper.

Mahjoubi rounded on Twitter, saying: "I find it intolerable when I see the head of Twitter (Jack Dorsey) informing the world in a single message that the conditions have changed, without anybody having the right to weigh in."

A Twitter spokeswoman said the company's highest priority was the "the conversation's serenity." She added that Twitter was investing more in technology and had reinforced its security policies.

As a result, the group had noticed "a drop in the number of complaints" by users, the spokeswoman said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)