France Now Able/Allowed to Censor/Block Internet
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Canuckster
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never let a good crisis go to waste.
People say they all want the truth, but when they are confronted with a truth that disagrees with them, they balk at it as if it were an unwanted zombie apocalypse come to destroy civilization.
Terrorism is a statists best friend.
^ nicely put
Makes me wonder what kind of shit is blocked anywhere, and we just don't know about it.
It feels like the internet is open and wild, but I bet that ain't quite so.
what are we also NOT seeing I wonder?
Makes me wonder what kind of shit is blocked anywhere, and we just don't know about it.
It feels like the internet is open and wild, but I bet that ain't quite so.
what are we also NOT seeing I wonder?
Masato wrote:^ nicely put
Makes me wonder what kind of shit is blocked anywhere, and we just don't know about it.
It feels like the internet is open and wild, but I bet that ain't quite so.
what are we also NOT seeing I wonder?
It does seem pretty open. There is the 'dark web' people talk about but I don't know what's down there.
Surely there is a ton of information that just isn't on the internet (classified docs and such), but there is certainly plenty of dirt on the TPTB floating around.
I think the strategy used is to just flood it with crap to dilute the truth.
I think we'll see more censorship down the road and more power to monitor but there are plenty of ways to protect those in power without full on censorship. Getting rid of anonymity would take many steps in that direction. Then people would worry about public shaming for having unpopular opinions, and would be pressured into taking the politically correct / conformist / party line.
More:
https://www.rt.com/news/324979-france-s ... -internet/
France wants to introduce new security measures following the deadly November 13 Paris attacks, which could outlaw the use of encrypting software for anonymous connections and public Wi-Fi. Critics say the authorities are using the tragic event to clamp down on internet use.
The French government is pondering whether to introduce measures which could make the use of Tor, the free anonymizing software, illegal and to make it harder for terrorists to contact one another over the internet, according to an internal document from the Ministry of the Interior, as seen by Le Monde and cited by online magazine the Motherboard. However, the software is also used by journalists and whistleblowers as a safe way to correspond to avoid government surveillance.
Paris is also thinking of moving to outlaw the use of public Wi-Fi during a state of emergency, however, it also wants “to block or forbid communications of the Tor network,” a step which Le Monde says could be introduced by January 2016, the Motherboard reports.
To encrypt communications, Tor uses Onion Routing, a software system that allows users to browse the web anonymously by preventing website and network operators from knowing a person’s location and the websites the person has been looking at. It does this by passing the connection between thousands of relay points to make it impossible to pinpoint where it came from.
The right to use encrypted software has even been defended by the UN.
"Encryption and anonymity, separately or together, create a zone of privacy to protect opinion and belief," a written report by David Kaye, a special rapporteur in the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in May.
Last week, the French government said it wanted to change its constitution to allow a state of emergency to last for six months. The country has been in a state of emergency since November, following the multiple terror attacks in Paris which killed 130 people.
The news came after Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the current state of emergency could be extended after its scheduled end on February 26.
"Obviously, we can't rule out that possibility, depending on the level of danger, and we have to act with a great deal of responsibility," Valls told Europe 1 radio.
Created during the Algerian war in 1955, France's state of emergency law allows the government to conduct warrantless searches, put people under house arrest, seal the country's borders, and ban demonstrations.
The protest ban has been met with fierce opposition from those who say they have the fundamental right to demonstrate.
“This state of emergency grants the forces of order like the police and the army exceptional powers that put people’s liberties at risks – whether it’s night-time raids on their homes, house arrests, or the ban on demonstrations," lawyer Patrick Baudouin, Honorary President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), told The Local.
This is not the first time the French government has tried to introduce surveillance legislation. In the wake of January’s Charlie Hebdo attacks, parliament approved new snooping rules which would allow the government to spy on the emails and phone calls of anyone linked to terror suspects, without authorization from a judge.
However, the move led to protests, with hundreds rallying in Paris against the government’s plans, while the co-founder of an internet surveillance watchdog slammed the move.
“It’s not just about terrorism; it allows the intelligence agencies to resort to surveillance for a broad range of motives: scientific, economic espionage or monitoring social movements,” said Felix Treguer, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net.
“So it’s really not just about terrorism and some of the measures really come down to legalizing mass surveillance. This is of course a very dangerous path,” he added.
https://www.rt.com/news/324979-france-s ... -internet/
France wants to introduce new security measures following the deadly November 13 Paris attacks, which could outlaw the use of encrypting software for anonymous connections and public Wi-Fi. Critics say the authorities are using the tragic event to clamp down on internet use.
The French government is pondering whether to introduce measures which could make the use of Tor, the free anonymizing software, illegal and to make it harder for terrorists to contact one another over the internet, according to an internal document from the Ministry of the Interior, as seen by Le Monde and cited by online magazine the Motherboard. However, the software is also used by journalists and whistleblowers as a safe way to correspond to avoid government surveillance.
Paris is also thinking of moving to outlaw the use of public Wi-Fi during a state of emergency, however, it also wants “to block or forbid communications of the Tor network,” a step which Le Monde says could be introduced by January 2016, the Motherboard reports.
To encrypt communications, Tor uses Onion Routing, a software system that allows users to browse the web anonymously by preventing website and network operators from knowing a person’s location and the websites the person has been looking at. It does this by passing the connection between thousands of relay points to make it impossible to pinpoint where it came from.
The right to use encrypted software has even been defended by the UN.
"Encryption and anonymity, separately or together, create a zone of privacy to protect opinion and belief," a written report by David Kaye, a special rapporteur in the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in May.
Last week, the French government said it wanted to change its constitution to allow a state of emergency to last for six months. The country has been in a state of emergency since November, following the multiple terror attacks in Paris which killed 130 people.
The news came after Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the current state of emergency could be extended after its scheduled end on February 26.
"Obviously, we can't rule out that possibility, depending on the level of danger, and we have to act with a great deal of responsibility," Valls told Europe 1 radio.
Created during the Algerian war in 1955, France's state of emergency law allows the government to conduct warrantless searches, put people under house arrest, seal the country's borders, and ban demonstrations.
The protest ban has been met with fierce opposition from those who say they have the fundamental right to demonstrate.
“This state of emergency grants the forces of order like the police and the army exceptional powers that put people’s liberties at risks – whether it’s night-time raids on their homes, house arrests, or the ban on demonstrations," lawyer Patrick Baudouin, Honorary President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), told The Local.
This is not the first time the French government has tried to introduce surveillance legislation. In the wake of January’s Charlie Hebdo attacks, parliament approved new snooping rules which would allow the government to spy on the emails and phone calls of anyone linked to terror suspects, without authorization from a judge.
However, the move led to protests, with hundreds rallying in Paris against the government’s plans, while the co-founder of an internet surveillance watchdog slammed the move.
“It’s not just about terrorism; it allows the intelligence agencies to resort to surveillance for a broad range of motives: scientific, economic espionage or monitoring social movements,” said Felix Treguer, co-founder of La Quadrature du Net.
“So it’s really not just about terrorism and some of the measures really come down to legalizing mass surveillance. This is of course a very dangerous path,” he added.
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