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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

#83

Post by littlestymaar »

fransje26 wrote: post #67
littlestymaar wrote: post #62

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...

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…

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

#85

Post by cm2187 »

conradfr wrote: post #35
nestorD wrote: 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…

Yesterday the French government dissolved an environmental movement (which I don't like btw), amongst the reasons stated[0] are that they leave their phones at home or switch them off, refuse to talk to the police when arrested, or even that they organize their protest over the internet. When accused of authoritarian tendencies the government usually answers "go to China or North Korea to see what a dictatorship is l…

They have not been dissolved because they left their phone at home, they have been dissolved because it was a violent organisation that was systematically attacking the police and destroying property.

And given the sort of stuff they brought to their protests: swords, machettes, baseball bats, jerrycan, bricks, fireworks, petanque balls, Molotov cocktails, fire bombs, etc, it is particularly disingenuous to pretend they have been dissolved for not talking to the police when arrested.

You can read the actual decret in French: https://twitter.com/GDarmanin/status/1671450289298198528

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

#86

Post by alpaca128 »

h0l0cube wrote: post #33
nestorD wrote: 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…

> “members” of this movement are alledgedly showing “a great culture of secrecy […] and a certain reserve towards technology”.

So caring about one's human right to privacy is a "culture of secrecy" now

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

#88

Post by hkt »

It is worth remembering that France got its current constitution in a bloodless coup:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1958_crisis_in_France

It amazes me that the constitution that was put in place then is largely unchanged today, insofar as the French president is still incredibly powerful, parliament is subservient, and the electoral system is deeply majoritarian.

I don't know exactly what it says about a society that it keeps a constitution that was imposed this way, but it isn't anything good. The frank craziness in this article (F-Droid, lol) is in keeping with that.

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

#90

Post by getrealal »

hkt wrote: post #80
someweirdperson wrote: post #23

Wasn't there a time when French FidoNet could not exchange zipped mail, because that would be considered encryption? Maybe my memory is inventing things though.

I'm not sure, but encryption was outlawed entirely in France until 1999 or so: https://www.theregister.com/1999/01/15/france_to_end_severe_...

I laughed at this part:

>French minister for the economy and finance, Domenica Strauss-Khan, has said she wishes to liberalise

Dominique Strauss-Kahn (they also butchered his last name) is definitely not a woman (but it's a "mixed" name indeed, that both men and women can have).

Back in those days it was also illegal to share radio frequencies used by the military (since comms were not always encrypted; details about frequency and modulation were secret), and a guy got prosecuted for doing just that.

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