Macron's call to 'cut off' social media during riots sparks backlash in France

france24.com

Posted by Rambler in News

"We have to think about the social networks, about the bans we'll have to put in place. When things get out of control, we might need to be able to regulate or cut them off," Macron told a meeting of mayors on Tuesday according to media reports.

Macron and his ministers have singled out platforms like Snapchat, TikTok and encrypted messenger Telegram for their role in spreading images of the nights of violence following the June 27 police shooting of a 17-year-old teenager, Nahel M.

"When (social media) becomes a tool for organising or for attempting to kill, it's a real problem," Macron said.

Remember, 'temporary' losses of freedom in the name of security are never given back to you later. Once lost, they're gone. France has really gone above and beyond lately to show that they are not friends of online privacy.

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righttoprivacy wrote

speaking of which, 2 weeks before election, Macron actually campaigned against anonymity online: “In a democratic society, there should be no anonymity. You can’t walk around in the street wearing a hood. On the Internet, people allow themselves, because they are hooded behind a pseudonym, to say the worst abjections”

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Rambler OP wrote

Absurd.

And like, I get it to a degree. Sure, there are some shitty people online. And sure, some hide behind anonymity.

And there are also people who just don't want giant corporations harvesting data about them or who wish to keep their government out of their daily life, even when doing nothing at all wrong. And for them, there are people that all fall in between or wish to have privacy for various other reasons.

It's bizarre to me that wanting privacy can even ever be considered controversial. No one thinks that because you put up a privacy fence on your property that you're now running a automobile chop-shop or operating a meth lab in the back yard, now that the neighbors and passersby can't see in. Not sure why people assume the worse when people want digital privacy, as well. No one would demand all houses remove privacy fences so everyone can see their yards, which I think can be sort of an apt comparison to digital privacy.

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