Macron Accused of Authoritarianism After Threat To Cut Off Social Media During R...
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Macron Accused of Authoritarianism After Threat To Cut Off Social Media During Riots
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"We need to think about how young people use social networks, in the family, at school, the interdictions there should be ... and when things get out of hand we may have to regulate them or cut them off," Macron told a meeting of more than 250 mayors, whose municipalities were hit by the violence, on Tuesday. "Above all, we shouldn't do this in the heat of the moment and I'm pleased we didn't have to. But I think it's a real debate that we need to have in the cold light of day," Macron told the mayors in a video obtained by BFM television. Critics said considering such measures would put France alongside authoritarian countries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Speaking after a ministerial meeting on Wednesday, government spokesperson Olivier Veran said a cross-party committee to look at a modification of a law on cybersecurity currently going through parliament would be set up. Veran said the government had made a "firm request" to social media platforms to take down materials encouraging violence as quickly as possible and remove the anonymity of those possibly breaking the law. A young person should know he cannot sit behind his screen and write, organize or do whatever he wants. Anonymity in terms of offenses doesn't exist. You have to understand this can have consequences and the consequences can lead to punishment," Veran said. Asked if it meant suspending social media, the Veran added: "It could be something like suspending a function, such as geolocalization."
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by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Wednesday July 05, 2023 @08:31PM (#63660378)
This will certainly help calm things down.
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Probably would be doing the whole world a favor to shut them all down permanently, but probably won't do much here. I seem to remember barricades and they didn't even have a telephone then.
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There's no question social media has been used to incite violence - like the kidnapped children rumor, complete with faked photos of mutilated bodies, that prompted a mob killing in India a few years ago.
But this isn't the same thing -- a mob incited by a fake event. This is people getting mad over something that actually happened, and being French they're doing what pissed off French people always do: they're taking to the steet to raise hell. Social media is certainly handy for organizing a riot, but the French don't need it; they've been doing this since the day they stormed the Bastille.
Politicians don't particularly like being cast as Louis XVI in that drama, so they're blaming social media. If you click through, you'll find they're blaming video games as well, so that tells you how honest that response is. The real cause of the riots is a witch's brew of economic stress, class snobbery, festering injustice, and perceived government indifference.
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You don't have to piss them off to do that. For example, in America we celebrate the new year with fireworks. In France, they celebrate the new year by torching cars. They even hold competitions for it; basically the neighborhood that torches the most cars wins.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/f... [cbsnews.com]
It's part of their culture, so if you make fun of it you're a hater.
Instead they like to be cast as Maximilien Robespierre. Oh you gave Macron the finger? Well then you're head's going to roll!
https://saharareporters. [saharareporters.com]
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Probably would be doing the whole world a favor to shut them all down permanently, but probably won't do much here. I seem to remember barricades and they didn't even have a telephone then.
The police were told not to interfere with the protests, over fears that it would escalate the situation.(*)
After the first couple of days, vigilante groups formed around houses and businesses for protection, trying to keep the rioters away. The police were told to go after the vigilantes and leave the protestors alone.
This led to the French police union to release the statement "Today the police are in combat because we are at war, tomorrow we will be in resistance.” (Meaning: tomorrow the police will be on the side of the vigilantes.)
Then Macron floated the idea of shutting down social media, because that's where the protestors make their plans.
Quoth Bastien Rondeau-Frimas:
“Of course a strong leader like Éric Zémmour could crush this very easily. The police have been ordered to not do that much because they “don’t want to add fuel to the fire”. The orders from the government are explicit: We don’t want you to fight this, we just want you to secure Hell. They believe if the cops would act, it would explode”, Frimas said.
Macron has completely mishandled the situation front-to-back, and there's a fairly high probability that this will bring down his government.
(*) Although I suspect law breaking was still an arrestable offense: 1,000 Buildings Burnt, 5,600 Vehicles Destroyed, 3,300 Arrests.
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I've said that about the last 5 incidents he handled. I still remember leaving for the airport 1min before a colleague. I made my flight with an hour to spare, and he missed it because protestors set a roundabout on fire (along with half the country).
At this point protesting and rioting is a national pass time. I'm not confident it'll bring down his government, but then it won't be because he's loved, but rather because his main opponent is a fascist psychopath and the public seem to hate Macron less. Or at
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People are angry about an actual incident. Macron is accusing social media companies of not removing the content but their reply has been actually quite level headed: They attempt to control misinformation. There is no misinformation here, there is only actual news. The cops did in fact shoot a 14 year old kid and people are upset.
If we were to praise the shutdown of social media it better be for something *other* than this.
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Nahel was 17.
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Oh that makes it all better, thanks.
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They're testing how far they can extend the extraordinary measures they took during COVID for standard control of people, and France is the test right now.
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Guy reminds me of the Merovingian from the Matrix. Not in a good way.
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Rightfully so; as president of France he literally is successor to the Merovingian dynasty.
However, contrary to the Merovingian character from the Matrix, who had the reputation to have been there for a very long time, Macron was elected President at 39 years old making him the youngest leader of a republican France, and youngest serving president of a G20 country at the moment of his election.
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He was there a long time because he was A.I. I doubt Macron will last as long, but maybe?
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Bullshit. The EU members can't be more different from each other. Some are constitutional monarchies, some are centralist republics, others are completely decentralised federations. And whether rights are guaranteed no matter what or not is up to their diverse constitutions.
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Unitary governments tend to concentrate resources/infrastructure in one big city and that means protests and riots can concentrate themselves much easier than in places like in Germany or Canada or the US.
Paris 40% of the French population - down from 50% post WWII. A federal France would be a lot more stable imho.
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The freedom to use the internet seems to me the lesser freedom compared to freedom of movement.
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The government murdering children is a minor event?
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France has never had a history of the people rising up or protesting a corrupt government. Especially never in light of government approved violence. France has been entirely free of such barbarism for at least 236 years.
I have never heard of a French Revolution. Not have I heard of the four French Republics before the current one.
Young people do not understand consequences anymore. I do not know where it originates. Police are always held accountable for excessive use of force. Our government officials
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It's understandable, considering the state of what passes for public education.
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Mesh networks, Bluetooth communications apps, etc. are important precisely so governments cannot shut things down entirely.
For starters, Android users can check out Briar.
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This happened right after Macron held negotiations with Xi about yuan-denominated trade.
The rioters are shooting video of their deeds on Africa Facebook but if Westeners repost the same video they're catching a 30-day ban.
Zuck has straight-up said TLA types tell him what to do and his new Trust&Safety goon is Straight Outta Langley.
Everything about this says Color Revolution.
Macron can see which tools are being used against him and both his police and military are threatening a takeover.
LePen is on a very popular told-you-so tour.
He doesn't have great options.
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Color revolutions don't really happen in countries with fair elections, because the color revolution protests typically are calling for fair elections.
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France does not have anything most of the rest of the worlds Republics would call 'fair elections' though. They don't even have proportional representation! My goodness look at all the fights over gerrymandering and census methodology here; and bitter complaints about how some states that get awarded the very few numbers of reps get over represented in the senate etc...
None of that is anywhere near the inequity in the French system.
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John has a long mustache.
The chair is against the wall.
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You can't import "there" without "here" becoming "there".
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Yes. People from somewhere else are always the problem. Always. What happens when you run out of those "other" places?
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SCOTUS rules that the executive branch cannot influence social media about the "truth" - BAD
The French executive branch wants to influence social media about the 'truth: - BAD
Have a consistent algo, either the executive branch telling social media what is allowed, without the say of the legislative branch, is good, or it is bad, not situational/what I want.
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Shutting down a system is not equivalent to flagging and voluntary compliance with something like 0.0005% of broadcast social media posts.
Now, you may be arguing that "a contagion of misbehavior" is the same whether it is fake news or coordinated action in real time, but the equivalent to "stopping some fake news" would be to arrest leaders coordinating protests/riots, not blowing the whole network away
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I think we are way past this suspicion.
ma€ron has proven he his authoritarian since years.
Question: regarding the recent retirement law, how many times our representatives had the opportunity to vote ?
Answer : zero, none, never, peau de balle, nada, mes couilles
Was it illegal then ?
No. The process was constitutional.How is it possible ?
By using rarely, if never, used constitution articles : one the speed up the "debates" (I means, more speedy than the usual urgent), one to stop debating and vote immediately in senate, another in parliament that in substance says : "shut up all, the government had had enough, we (ma€ron) decide that the law is adopted".
The last one was used because they new that if there has been a real vote, they would have lose it.
Please don't count the motion of censure that followed : it is just an attempt the tell the government "you piece of shit, go to hell with your law". I can't remember one motion of censure that passed. This one was so close : 7 more voters for it and ma€ron would have been in a pretty deep shit.
About our constitution : remember when and who build it. The general De Gaule. And it has quickly been called "le coup d'état permanent" (the permanent coup ?) And remember to distinguish what's legal and what's just.-
If you want to live in a direct democracy then you are in the wrong country. There are few countries in the world where citizens get to vote on all matters of public debate. I think he's an arsehole as much as anyone, but complaining that people didn't get an opportunity to vote is stupid. You did get the opportunity. You selected that representative. That's how representative democracies work, you don't get to micromanage the legislative process of a nation. Select a different one next election.
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Definition of dictatorship : "shut up !"
Definition of democratie : "speak, we don't care"
(in French : "ta gueule" vs "cause toujours")
So, your point is that we vote every 5 years and then, it's open bar for the... Well, let's say "elected" one for the moment.
What about our representatives that don't get a single chance to represent us ? ma€ron doesn't have the majority at the parliament, so he's using every single loophole, defect of the constitution to overrule the parliament votes.
Recently, th-
What is the process in France to amend the constitution? Here in the US, our problem is that politicians use the loopholes, but the populace does not even try to fix the loopholes.
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Right, accusing Macron of authoritarianism is horribly overdue.
What would be accurate at this point is accusing him of fascism.
He checks all the biggest boxes on the form, right wing authoritarian controlling access to information and working on behalf of corporations to fuck over The People.
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Whereas reich wingers are lost without their boot on someone else's neck?
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anonymous coward is cowardly
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No, right wingers are lost without a boot shoved down their throat.
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He's just guilty of skipping the "no one's coming for your social media" step.
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and he would say he is using legal tools to avert a financial calamity that naturally arises from to much democracy when people realize "they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury."
Just like in this country France has a structural, is it unsolvable no but if nothing is done it will become so. The only real fixes are bitter pills.
Here in the USA we have a never shrinking national debt. Whatever the economists and talking heads on either end want to say it can't go on forever. Something will h
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