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this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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A note here about the context from near the end of the article, which is very worth reading.
"This case is a trial for the Ministry of Interior, which aims to normalise this framing for repressive purposes. During a Senate hearing that followed the violent repression of protests in Sainte-Soline [environmental protests severely repressed that happened in France in 2023], Gérald Darmanin, the French Minister of Interior, implored the legislature to change the law so that it would be possible to hack into demonstrators’ mobile phones, especially those using “Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram”: “Give us the same means for extreme violence as for terrorism”. His justification was that “there is a very strong, advanced paranoia in ultra-left circles […] who use encrypted messaging”, which can be explained by a “clandestine culture”. In an attempt to demonstrate the supposed violence of Sainte-Soline activists, he also cited the 8 December affair as an example of a “foiled attack” by the “ultra-left”, in defiance of any presumption of innocence23."
This is not just about use of technology signalling terrorism, it is about repression of dissent from the current government. Environmental protests, protests against the changes to pensions, and really any other protests are a target. This is antidemocratic at it's core and will be expanded unless resisted. This kind of authoritarian behaviour clearly shows the need for the very thing they are repressing, technology to maintain privacy and security for those the state disagrees with.
It is being resisted. But...
Telegram and WhatsApp groups over here, like in many countries, are echo chambers for certain ideologies. I am a professor, graduate school, and some of my students talk about "the great replacement". I ask them what it is and they tell me, straight-faced in front of their peers, what it is and how it is a real thing because they saw it shared on a group chat. With the very recent knife attack and the fact that this was not a French citizen, I would imagine the loonies are out full swing on their group chats.
The "nothing to hide" argument is used a lot here and (this is my personal opinion) I real feel like many French people are poorly informed about the tech world. I still hear people refer to Gates as the boss of MS. My MIL still thinks that Zuckerberg made Signal so she refuses to use it (but spends 14 hours a day on FB). Musk is viewed by many as a benevolent Tony Stark. And once I presented Mastodon to my students and when I explained the content warnings and some of the rules, they all burst out laughing and called it "stoopid".
Now, in reality we have some great stuff going on over here: La Quadrature du Net, Framasoft, Les Chatons, FDN, etc. and the tech community is loud and likes to resist, but getting GenZ and the Boomers and everyone in between to listen for a minute is hard work. I spend a lot of time looking in to this sort of stuff, and I am subscribed to the LQDN newsletters and donate to different similar organisations... This entire story was completely under the radar for me. I heard nothing about it until I looked at that video.
Anyway, it was fun to rant for a bit.
French people, this isn't French-bashing: I know there are lots of overly tech-savvy people here in this beautiful country.
I have had similar experiences here in Australia. People seem to be very distracted and stressed to the point where they have no time to consider ideas like privacy, security, and societal improvement. Maybe I am an idealist but I would hope to leave a better world for those that will follow us and allowing another rise of authoritarianism seems like it is a very bad idea.
We are clearly fucked as French.
@TGhost @bbbhltz
Cyberhuuug! :revblobfoxpeekowo:
Ty we need it mate ^^