But opponents, including one of France’s leading judges dealing with terrorism cases, Marc Trévidic, say that the law’s text contradicts the prime minister’s assurances.
“It is a state lie,” said Pierre-Olivier Sur, the head of the Paris bar association. “This project was presented to us as a way to protect France against terrorism, and if that were the case, I would back it,” he said.
“But it is being done to put in place a sort of Patriot Act concerning the activities of each and everyone,” ..
Court Rules Against NSA Spying
It declared the program illegal, saying, “We do so comfortably in the full understanding that if Congress chooses to authorize such a far-reaching and unprecedented program, it has every opportunity to do so, and to do so unambiguously.”
France’s Push to Expand Surveillance Is Predictable but Possibly Futile
Despite the breadth of the proposed legislation, which was overwhelmingly passed by the lower house of Parliament on Tuesday, the increased surveillance would probably not have prevented Chérif and Saïd Kouachi from massacring 12 people at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the analysts said.
Nor would the added measures probably have headed off Amedy Coulibaly from taking hostages days later at a kosher grocery store, killing four of them, in addition to a police officer, they said.
“The Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly were already targeted by the intelligence services,” Mr. Sur noted, and the authorities already have more information and suspects than they can possibly track with the current levels of resources and funding ..
.. And nowhere do those factors play a stronger role than in France, which has the largest Muslim population in Europe and has seen more of its citizens go to Syria and Iraq than any other European country.
.. Now, human rights and civil liberties advocates say their worry is that if the French legislation is enacted, the country will be in the vanguard of repressive states like Russia that use surveillance powers to monitor not only potential terrorists but also anyone who is seen as a threat to the government.
.. “My fear is that France is setting an example here and it encourages a race for the bottom on a global level,” said Cynthia Wong, a lawyer and senior Internet researcher for Human Rights Watch. “If France does it, why wouldn’t every other government do the same thing?”
Meet Canary Watch, A Way To Disclose Gag Orders Without Disclosing Them
To create a warrant canary, a company starts making a regular disclosure—on its website, say, or in a regularly published transparency report—that it has not received a particular data request from national-security or law-enforcement agencies. If the company modifies or fails to publish that particular disclosure, the canary effectively “dies,” allowing observant readers to infer that the company has been served with an order for data and forbidden to discuss it.
.. For instance, the government frequently argues that its restrictions aren’t burdensome because they only prevent disclosure of information the government itself provided. Suppressing a warrant canary, however, is a more overt form of censorship that might give judges pause.
.. While courts have sometimes compelled true speech—think of those Surgeon General’s warnings on cigarettes, for instance—none appear to have upheld compelled false speech.