France’s “Parliament … overwhelmingly approv[ed] a bill that could give the authorities their most intrusive domestic spying abilities ever, with almost no judicial oversight. … The provisions, as currently outlined, would allow the intelligence services to tap cellphones, read emails and force Internet companies to comply with requests to allow the government to sift through virtually all of their subscribers’ communications. Among the types of surveillance that the intelligence services would be able to carry out is bulk collection and analysis of metadata similar to that done by the United States’ National Security Agency.”
Unlike most Americans, who merely shrug at DC’s totalitarianism, France’s subjects vehemently condemn their government’s assault on freedom and privacy. And the worst insult they can hurl is to compare this legislation to–you guessed it–the USSA’s Patriot Act: “Pierre-Olivier Sur, the head of the Paris bar association” said that the bill will “put in place a sort of Patriot Act concerning the activities of each and everyone.”
Others compare the measure to that of another repressive regime: Russia. “‘The requirement that the Internet companies use the black boxes is a requirement that Russia has as well,’ said Cynthia Wong, a lawyer and senior Internet researcher at Human Rights Watch… . She was referring to the devices the [French] government plans to use to collect data from Internet companies.”
So there you have it. A country founded on the premise that “all men…are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights” has become a byword for oppression and surveillance, even in socialist, bureaucratic France.
10:38 am on May 6, 2015
