Sarkozy proposes censorship of terrorist websites after Toulouse shooting

In the aftermath of the shootings in Montauban and Toulouse, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that the government wanted to make visiting websites that promote terrorism, hate or violence a crime. Skip to the 2 minute mark in the video below to see the announcement. The video is in French but I have translated his statement below.

From now now, any person who regularly consults web sites that glorify terrorism or that call for hate or violence will be penally punished.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpm4r5_mort-de-mohamed-merah-l-intervention-de-nicolas-sarkozy_news

French tech website PC Inpact noted that the proposal would extend the breadth of an existing law against pedophilia and pedo-pornography online. But Sarkozy’s remarks provoked an immediate backlash online, where many criticized the proposal as an inefficient short-term reaction to the tragic events in Toulouse. Web users called out the measure for what it really was, i.e. censorship.

https://twitter.com/Clyde_Barrow_/status/182932992468062208

(So Sarkozy’s platform is really 1984, in reference to George Orwell’s novel)

After Marine Le Pen last week, Sarkozy has therefore decided that censorship was the best tool to fight against an undesired phenomenon (pornography in her case, terrorism in his). But even without considering the dangers of his proposal – unprecedented State power to determine what constitutes terrorism or what is potentially violent – the measure has many practical faults.

First, although the legal framework would make it possible, it would be technically difficult to implement such a measure given the complexities of the world wide web today (proxies, for instance, is an easy counter measure). Even the identification of the Toulouse shooter through an IP address took longer than one would think. Only a so-called Deep Packet Inspection would enable to effectively monitor connections, but at an unacceptable price for civil liberties.

Another difficulty is that would-be terrorists are not the only ones that consult the targeted websites: sociologists, journalists, historians and other professionals or scholars do to.

https://twitter.com/martelf/status/182810442949853185

Giving these professional categories an ‘authorization’ to browse terrorist websites is not a solution either. If  a journalist can consult a website for his work, why shouldn’t a normal citizen be able to if he wants to inform himself? Sarkozy’s proposal mere hours after the shooter’s death also begs the question: does he really think keeping individuals like Mohamed Merah from visiting terrorist websites will prevent them from murdering people?

Vous croyez sérieusement qu'empêcher les terroristes de lire les empêchera de tuer ? http://t.co/80HxO2ge #Sarkozysme

— jean marc manach @manhack@social.tcit.fr (@manhack) March 22, 2012

Finally, even if such a law were to pass (Sarkozy backtracked on his calendar and has now postponed the decision to after the elections), it would be struck down by the European Human Rights Court or by the Conseil Constitutionnel, which have both proven their aptitude at defending civil liberties.

To sum up, Sarkozy’s proposal is as hasty as useless as was French swimmer Laure Manadou’s Twitter comment after the shooting in Toulouse.

(Remove those stupid video games and things will be better!)

Choose Your 2012 Candidates Online

Gone are the days when you had to peruse pamphlets and scrutinize posters to understand a candidate’s positions and proposals. All of it is online nowadays, and there are several useful web tools for comparing platforms and candidates – some serious, some not. Click on the images below to access the various websites.

• Voxe.org and Rue89 – simple and efficient platform comparators 

Screenshot of platform comparison website Voxe.org

 Created by a team of web specialists (they also created an iPhone app), Voxe.org offers dual comparisons between candidates.

+ : Simple, stream-lined interface with embedded videos. Ability to comment, propose and compare candidates from 2002 and 2007 elections.

– : Some missing information, especially for smaller candidates.

Screenshot of Rue89's platform comparator

News website Rue89 also has its own platform comparator, with fewer details but a quicker interface.

+ : Simple interface with little scrolling, easy access to flagged sources, short title that summarizes each candidate’s position.

– : Only the six main candidates are available for comparison.

• “Qui propose quoi?” (Who is proposing what?) and Présibourse – Having fun with comparisons

Screenshot of Libération.fr's "Qui Propose Quoi?" game

Libération.fr is another news website that helps voters understand what the candidate’s positions are, but in a quizz format.

+ : Quick, ten question sessions with three levels of difficulty enable users to easily find out who is proposing what. Easy to use interface.

– : No possibility of comparing two or more candidates on a specific topic.

Screenshot of Présibourse.fr

Présibourse.fr is not a platform comparator. It does not include any campaign proposals. Instead, it is a betting website where candidates are stock that you can buy and trade.

+ : A fun way of seeing who is popular and who isn’t

– : No comparisons, no real added value other than humor.

Finally, Quivoter.fr and Jevotequien2012.fr are websites for the undecided voter: both ask the user a series of policy questions (ex: What is the most important measure for health and solidarity?). At the end, the test tells you which candidate you are closest to given your answers, and voilà, you know who to vote for!

François Bayrou’s Online Campaign: Booting the MoDem.

If you are a bored gamer in search of the latest entertainment experience, drop your controller, turn off Call of Duty and go campaign for François Bayrou.

You read that correctly. Centrist candidate François Bayrou’s new campaign website was released on February 7th and it is the first with a gaming twist. With the release of an iPhone app the day before, this is an attempt by the MoDem candidate to boost his online credentials, prompting French magazine Marianne to ask whether Bayrou is a geek.

Screenshot of François Bayrou's iPhone app

The new website emulates the point-system feature of many social media sites and applications like Foursquare (note that François Bayrou himself is not a Foursquare user but that you can check into his campaign headquarters). Instead of badges, however, MoDem sympathizers are rewarded with ‘decibels’ when they ‘make some noise’ online in favor of the candidate. Twitter users immediately picked up on the similarities.

Quand François #Bayrou se lance dans le #gaming pour sa nouvelle plateforme web, ça donne ça : http://t.co/02Rv617P

— Cécile Jandau (@Cecile_Jandau) February 8, 2012

Presidential candidate #Bayrou launches a new online platform inspired by #Obama campaign, video games and #foursquare: http://t.co/3ktR2NEv

— Rémi Noyon (@RemiJDN) February 7, 2012

This is not Bayrou’s first incursion into the social media world. Instead of announcing his candidacy on television or in print, he hosted a ‘twinterview’ on Twitter, an innovative but complicated exercise where users were asked to tweet questions to him (the event was closed to the press). François Bayrou is also very present on Facebook and Google +.

Screenshot of Bayrou.fr

Bayrou’s web campaign manager, Matthieu Lamarre, is striving to portray his man as a tech-savvy web user who is using social media to connect with ordinary French people. But the real man behind the scenes is Lamarre himself, who has multiplied media appearances to explain and promote Bayrou’s web strategy for the presidential elections. In the following CFJ (Centre de Formation des Journalistes, a Paris based journalism school) interview, for instance, we learn that Bayrou was an early-adopter of Google+ in its beta phase (see below for another interview):

Lamarre does a good job of stressing his candidate’s web-friendliness (see for example this France Info radio interview), and unlike other campaigns he smartly distances Bayrou’s web strategy from Barack Obama’s. He emphasizes that it makes no sense to copy what was done four years ago – as many candidates are doing- because the online differences between 2008 and 2012 are staggering. Overall, the 500 000 euros invested in Bayrou’s web campaign seem to be well spent, especially for Bayrou’s unique, slick magazine style website and despite criticism of the iPhone app’s unoriginality or of the new ‘gaming’ system’s lack of concrete incentives for action. So far, François Bayrou’s web strategy is a #win.

More :

– A Poligeek interview with Matthieu Lamarre:

Press review #1 – Web Campaigning for Better or for Worse

CC/Flickr/NS Newsflash

Welcome to Geeking the Elysée’s first press review! Today the focus is on online campaigning. Listen to the two audio podcasts below to understand which articles I selected and why. You’ll also find the links to my sources and relevant quotes.

François Hollande launches new campaign website:

Screenshot of toushollande.fr

France Télévisions: François Hollande lance un nouveau site internet destiné à mobiliser militants et sympatisants

Zdnet.fr: Présidentielles 2012 : l’équipe Web d’Obama conseille François Hollande

Le Journal du Dimanche/Europe 1: “Soutenir Hollande en un clic”

“Nothing is left to luck. Some 35 people work every day to spread the Hollande message on the web. Total cost of the operation: two million euros, or 10% of the total budget.”

François Hollande’s campaign websites: http://francoishollande.fr/ and http://toushollande.fr/ 

Worries about data protection: 

CC/Flickr/Cyril Cavalié

Le Point/AFP: Protection des données personnelles: la Cnil crée un Observatoire élections 2012  

OWNI.fr: Fichez les tous!

La Croix: La Cnil surveille de près la campagne présidentielle

“Since 2006, says the Cnil, regulations haven’t evolved. Practices, on the other hand, have deeply changed; with the spread of text message contacts, the creation of a gigantic list of sympathizers for the Socialist primaries, or the importance of social networks like Facebook.”

The Cnil (Commission National de l’informatique et des libertés, or National commission for information technology and liberties) website – http://www.cnil.fr/ – and recommendations for the campaign.