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French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

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Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really curious as to why Macron govt is looked up to by a lot of Americans. American citizens, with all of the country's flaws, tends to have a lot more inherent civil rights than most of these governments.

I think France is generally perceived here to have more progressive social policies regarding labor, education, healthcare and the environment. The limited media coverage I've seen about French elections seemed to paint Macron as the candidate more representative of those values.

Macron is not a fan of theses social policies, he is right leaning. His governement reduced labor protections, butchered educations, worsened public healthcare, and do nothing for the environment.

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#112
In the mean time, the French government is also sending out a call for projects [1] that increase cybersecurity, digital sovereignty and promote encryption of data. Just not for the common folk, but for startups.

I find it funny (/s) that my current project is funded by the French government to develop end-to-end encryption in web applications [2]. Am I a terrorist too?

[1] https://www.bpifrance.fr/nos-appels-a-projets-concours/appel...

[2] https://github.com/SocialGouv/e2esdk/

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#113
post #14
post #6

The key is that, while there is suspicion (the people arrested have a far left ideology, have been to Syria to fight against the Islamic state, own weapons and encrypt all of their communications), there is no crime nor proof of an intent to commit a crime . These people have been sent to prison because they are suspicious, not because of an action they have done (something made possible as a special case of an older…

It's not really a slippery slope, we've already arrived at the bad thing

yes, here is an article about "preventive detention of a climate activist" in Germany. https://newsrnd.com/news/2023-06-13-before-action-in-regensb...

The issue here is that they seemed to have used the encrypted communications to proof criminal behavior.

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#114

And now, the parliament is currently discussing a bill about forcing hardware manufacturers to include a remote switch in their products so that the mic and camera could be activated at distance by the authorities, so that the police can listen on potential terrorists[1]. This is fine… [1]: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/societe/justice/le-senat-donne-s...

Terrorists are saying thank you as they are gluing their mics and putting electric tape on their cameras.

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#115
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and is being prosecuted as passionately as self defence killings often are. Citation needed of self-defence killings im France being prosecuted passionately and unfairly.

https://www.dalloz-actualite.fr/interview/vanessa-codaccioni... 90% of self defense cases end in the tribunal, meaning that the judges saw it as not-self-defense. The biggest factor in all this is proportionality: if you killed someone in self defense but were not yourself having your life threatened, you will go to court.

Any physical assault is potentially life threatening. One unlucky fall on the pavement and that's it - you can easily die or become permanently disabled. Yet another reason why it's better to deescalate and/or run away if possible.

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#116
OK, I can see where they're coming from with things like Signal. Not that I agree, but at least I can understand the reasoning behind it.

But what is uBlock Origin's sin? A law-abiding citizen is supposed to be OK with seeing ads, or something?

Can someone who reads French please elaborate on what the linked piece is saying about it?

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#117
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.dalloz-actualite.fr/interview/vanessa-codaccioni... 90% of self defense cases end in the tribunal, meaning that the judges saw it as not-self-defense. The biggest factor in all this is proportionality: if you killed someone in self defense but were not yourself having your life threatened, you will go to court.

Any physical assault is potentially life threatening. One unlucky fall on the pavement and that's it - you can easily die or become permanently disabled. Yet another reason why it's better to deescalate and/or run away if possible.

Yep, and this is the logic that is followed by judges: self defense is pretty much only valid if you had no other option. Run away. Always run away.

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incredible that they are dumb enough to believe that this can be enforced. We live in the EU, with free movement of goods and people, meaning that we can easily order our next electronic device from any other EU country that will not enforce this nonsense. Of course, the next step will be you are shopping abroad == you are suspiciously close to being a terrorist. On the other hand, I can see enough countries willing…

Moreover, I wonder how they can even force the manufacturers into making a custom solution for their hubris. Unless the idea of adding such a remote switch seduces Xi and now there's a big enough market for this feature to be developed…

The law does not force manufacturers to do anything, this is just pure fabrication from OP.

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#119

this article miss a whole part of the story. among other things, these person came back from a warzone. looks at https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_du_8_décembre_2020

Very interesting; it looks like these people went to Syria to fight ISIS, and got this ill treatment when they returned. Why does it seem like the French government is always supporting the worst actors in any conflict? ISIS is (was) so evil and barbaric, they make Putin seem like a great guy. Why would volunteering to fight them ever be seen in a bad light?

Because government's really don't like their citizenry knowing how to apply violence, unless it's done through government controlled activities (ie military, police).

A cynical person would say it's because corrupt leaders are afraid of potential consequences for their actions. But there's likely other, more mundane reasons too. :)

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#120
post #6

The key is that, while there is suspicion (the people arrested have a far left ideology, have been to Syria to fight against the Islamic state, own weapons and encrypt all of their communications), there is no crime nor proof of an intent to commit a crime . These people have been sent to prison because they are suspicious, not because of an action they have done (something made possible as a special case of an older…

> the people arrested have a far left ideology, have been to Syria to fight against the Islamic state, own weapons and encrypt all of their communications Is there a place where we can read more about this? The article seems to explain none of that context, it only purports that people are suspicious and can be arrested for simply having good 'digital hygiene'. Edit: Some relevant passages from TFA > Likewise, the cr…

I don't know about this concrete case (and my french is not good enough to find out with ease) - but the context is likely, that they joined the YPG at some point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Defense_Units

It was/is a weird situation. They are very anticapitalist and marxist with some anarchist elements, but they got western support when they were fighting ISIS (and to some extent Assad/Putin) in Syria.

So in Syria communist rebells got US weapons and I believe US troops are still on the ground helping them. But back home in the west, those activists get prosecuted, because the PKK (the mother organisation of YPG) is considered a terrorist organisation (and likely they still are doing terrorism, even though it is of course a "separate" organisation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan_Freedom_Hawks)

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