As the geopolitical picture continues to churn with uncertainty, France is making a strong and surprising bid to assume a central leadership role in fixing the hot mess otherwise known as the internet.

Following a weekend-long tribute to the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I that drew global leaders to Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron made two major announcements that underscored his administration’s drive to address the long list of problems that have put a cloud over the internet’s impact on modern life.

The first came at the UNESCO Internet Governance Forum (IGF) on Monday in Paris, where Macron launched the “Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace.”

The goal is to create a framework for regulating the internet and fighting back against cyber attacks, online censorship and hate speech. The more than 370 signatories included 51 governments, though notably absent were the U.S., China and Russia. It’s also backed by tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Intel, Ericsson, Samsung, Accenture, Fujitsu, SAP, Salesforce and Hitachi.

Applauding Macron’s leadership, Microsoft president wrote in a blog post:

“The Paris Call is an important step on the path toward digital peace, creating a stronger foundation for progress ahead. It calls for strong commitments in support of clear principles and strong norms to protect citizens and civilian infrastructure from systemic or indiscriminate cyberattacks. Similarly, it calls for governments, tech companies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to work together to protect our democracies and electoral processes from nation-state cyberthreats.”

Meanwhile, Macron also announced that Facebook had agreed to allow French regulators to “embed” in the company for six months to monitor and understand its efforts to fight online hate speech and other suspicious content.

“It’s a first,” Macron told the annual Internet Governance Forum in Paris, according to Reuters. “I’m delighted by this very innovative experimental approach. It’s an experiment, but a very important first step in my view.”

The move is also one of the first major moves since Nick Clegg, the U.K.’s former deputy prime minister, became Facebook’s new vice president for global affairs.

“The best way to ensure that any regulation is smart and works for people is by governments, regulators and businesses working together to learn from each other and explore ideas,” Clegg said in a statement given to reporters.

These initiatives were just a part of a frenzied few days of action related to the internet’s future in Paris. In addition to the IGF, The Paris Peace Forum held its inaugural event over three days. And on Monday, Paris hosted the Govtech Summit, an effort to “reimagine services that place citizens at the centre of public delivery, where public servants have an array of technology-enabled resources and information at their fingertips, and can use new ways of delivering better, more efficient, more citizen-focused services.”

Attendees at the summit included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.K. Health Secretary Matthew Hancock, and was organized in part by former adviser to U.K. prime minister David Cameron. The gathering prompted Politico to muse: “Brexit is distracting the U.K. from a much-touted effort to digitize government — and France is only too happy to take advantage of the situation.”

These latest efforts come as France continues to press other European Union members to adopt a tax on tech giants to attempt to level the playing field for smaller startups a and traditional businesses.

Put together, the last few days underscore the remarkable rise in France’s international profile. Diplomatically speaking, the country seemed like an afterthought in many ways just a few years ago. But the election of President Macron 1.5 year ago, plus the void left by the America-firstism of President Donald Trump, created a new opening for France to try to regain a spot on the globe’s center stage.

As some look for an alternative to at the authoritarianism of China and Russia, and the populism sweeping much of Europe and the U.S., Macron has been happy to try to fill a void. Whether his calls for cooperation and globalism will have an impact, however, remain to be seen. But at least for now, France has again found itself enjoying a new relevance on the global stage.