* The Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulation adopted by the European Union
* A Defense and Security show without Israel!* First internet blockade in France
* "Foreign interference" law: Another security law
* Trial of Steve's death
* Call for solidarity
* In Vénissieux (Rhône), police violence reveals the distress of a
neighborhood facing the police
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulation adopted by the European Union
The Member States adopted the AI regulation on May 21, 2024, dedicated
to the regulation of Artificial Intelligence systems. This text had been
under discussion since 2021 and was presented as an instrument for
protecting rights and freedoms against the steamroller of AI.
Ultimately, this text is tailor-made for the tech industry, European
police forces and other large bureaucracies eager to automate social
control. This development can be explained by the battering rams from
Member States, including France, which have helped eliminate most of the
initial promises. This AI regulation aims to proliferate the production
and collection of data for the benefit of industry. European texts such
as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came
into force in 2018, are partly weakened by these new special rules
applicable to AI systems. But for the public and private actors who
pushed for the adoption of this text, the priority issue has never been,
as we might have expected, to protect fundamental rights. The regulation
is based on a "risk-based" approach, classifying the types of AI systems
or their areas of application (police, health, employment, etc.)
according to four risk categories (low risk not targeted by the
regulation; limited risk for certain systems subject only to
transparency measures; high risk subject to the various obligations of
the regulation; unacceptable risk for the few prohibited practices.
Under the regulation adopted yesterday, it is the companies that design
AI systems that will be the first to decide on the level of risk
presented by their products! They will then be free to consider that
these systems are not risky and therefore exempt from any regulation
under the regulation.
While it was clear from the beginning that the risk-based approach
promoted by the European Union to regulate AI was designed to regulate a
market rather than protect fundamental rights, at least one could hope
that the most dangerous uses of AI systems, such as facial recognition,
would be banned under the heading of "unacceptable risks". Here again,
France has worked with other states to thwart all claims in this area,
giving free rein to the police and the surveillance industry. Thus, the
use of real-time facial recognition will be possible when it comes to
finding victims of "kidnapping, trafficking or sexual exploitation of
human beings, as well as the search for missing persons", if it is a
question of preventing "a specific, substantial and imminent threat to
the life or physical safety of natural persons", or to prevent "a real
and present or real and foreseeable threat of terrorist attack".
Similarly, "social rating" - for example that practiced by the Family
Allowance Funds - remains permitted as long as it does not involve, like
the systems tested in China, a centralized system capturing data from
different social contexts (police, work, school, etc.). The sector
ratings used by social organizations will therefore be able to continue
in full swing: although it classifies them as high-risk applications,
and apart from a few procedural obligations, the regulation does nothing
to effectively combat the discriminatory algorithms of social
administrations in terms of rating and monitoring beneficiaries.
Source: Excerpt from the text of the Quadrature du Net dated May 22.
A Defense and Security exhibition without Israel!
The Eurosatory exhibition, created in 1967, is held every two years. It
is organized by Coges Events, a subsidiary of GICAT (Groupement des
Industries françaises de Défense et de Sécurité terrestres et
aéroterrestres), under the aegis of the Ministry of the Armed Forces. On
its website, Eurosatory defines itself as the "global reference meeting
for all Defense and Security professionals." It brings together nearly
100,000 defense, security and crisis management professionals at each
edition.
Thus, companies, members of the various governments represented,
military personnel, institutions and also private organizations are
invited every two years to this event. This year, a little over 2,000
exhibitors were registered for Eurosatory to present their equipment
from June 17 to 21 in Villepinte, north of Paris. Among them,
seventy-four Israeli companies, including Israel's main defense
manufacturers, and about ten of which were to present weapons there.
A demonstration took place in Paris to protest against the presence of
Israeli companies at this show. A group of associations also called on
the organizers of the show to "prevent" on this occasion the trade in
weapons likely to be used by the Israeli army in Gaza, under penalty of
legal proceedings.
In a "summons" delivered by bailiff on May 24, this coalition had asked
the organizers "to justify within 8 days the measures taken to prevent
the sale or purchase of weapons likely to be used in crimes committed in
Palestine and the occupied territories"!
Finally, the French government canceled the participation of these
Israeli industrialists in this trade fair. According to the Ministry of
the Armed Forces, "the conditions are no longer met to receive Israeli
companies at the French trade fair, in a context where the President of
the Republic is calling for Israeli operations to cease in Rafah".
Another source close to the case puts forward another explanation, that
of public order disturbances that would have concentrated mobile force
units around Villepinte. Staff already heavily impacted by the Olympic
Games, the crisis in New Caledonia, etc.
Sources: Le Monde, Le Parisien, etc.
First Internet blockade in France
This is a first in France and in Europe: the blocking of one of the main
social networks on national territory. TikTok was inaccessible in New
Caledonia from May 14 to 28, following a government decision that
accused the platform, which is very popular with young people in New
Caledonia as well as in mainland France, of having contributed to "the
spread of insurrectional disturbances to public order". This blocking
was made possible by the establishment of the state of emergency. This
temporary measure allows the State to take exceptional measures and
limit certain public freedoms to deal with a particularly serious
situation. In particular, it allows the Prime Minister to request, in
the territory, the blocking of an online public communication service
"inciting the commission of acts of terrorism or advocating them".
The authorities have other legal means at their disposal to block
applications or websites in the territory, but the state of emergency
offers the fastest regime in this area.
The blocking of TikTok was not decided because of the content[which is
broadcast], but because of the users, who are young people.
It should be noted that on May 23, the Council of State rejected a
request to suspend the blockade filed by several associations defending
public freedoms, including the Human Rights League and the Quadrature du
Net, the Mouvement Kanak association and three individuals.
Let us also recall that in July 2023, just after the major revolt caused
by Nahel's assassination, Macron declared to the mayors received at the
Élysée that he was considering "cutting off" social networks in the
event of new episodes of urban violence. Not to mention Fabien Roussel
of the PCF who had called for "a state of emergency on social networks
rather than on populations" and proposed "cutting off" social networks
"when things are hot in the country".
Sources: Contre-attaque, Le Monde, Médiapart.
"Foreign interference" law: Yet another security law
Is this about the capture of French health data used by the US
authorities as part of the Health Data Hub, other fraudulent captures by
American digital companies or the sale of cutting-edge technologies by
foreign companies, particularly Israeli ones, such as PEGASUS, allowing
the surveillance of political figures at the highest level? NONE OF THIS!
This law was definitively adopted on June 5 (a few days before the
dissolution of the National Assembly) by the Macronists, the LR, the RN,
the PS and EELV. Only the PCF and the LFI voted against it.
The aim of this law would be to limit intrusions by other states through
espionage and manipulation. However, while the government already has
many tools to prevent these intrusions, this text can only be worrying.
Indeed, these provisions could have the consequence of subjecting public
interest associations working for the collective interest to obligations
to declare subsidies from foreign foundations, thus reinforcing the
possibilities of government control.
Furthermore, in a constant logic of technological solutionism, the text
promotes the extension of an intelligence technique called the detection
algorithm or "intelligence black box". This technique was introduced by
the 2015 intelligence law. It involves monitoring all the technical
elements of all communications of the population (who contacts whom?
When? How? Or even why?), whether by telephone or on the Internet, all
this to pursue the objective of automatically detecting profiles
carrying out a certain number of actions determined to be suspicious.
Source: laquadrature.net
Steve's death trial
Grégoire Chassaing, who led the operation to disperse the Fête de la
Musique in 2019 in Nantes during which a young man, Steve Maia Caniço,
died in the Loire, was on trial in Rennes from June 10 to 14 for
involuntary manslaughter. At the heart of the debates was to be the
doctrine relating to the maintenance of order and the use of weapons.
Indeed, the commissioner had demanded the end of the party, a DJ had
turned off the sound then turned it back on as soon as the commissioner
had left.
Then, two versions clashed. That of the investigating judges who painted
the portrait of a commissioner upset by this provocation and who then
decided to punish the party-goers by leading a police charge. In just
ten minutes, he and his men fired thirty-three tear gas grenades, ten
stun grenades and twelve LBD projectiles. The cloud of tear gas
suffocated the crowd and caused panic. At least five people fell into
the water. Four were rescued, Steve Maia Caniço disappeared into the
Loire. For the commissioner, the violence of the party-goers explained
this response in a unique context of "self-defense". Nine police
officers came to defend their fellow commissioner and expressed neither
remorse nor regret. The hierarchical superiors came to parade in the
dock to praise the "exemplary" behavior of Grégoire Chassaing,
"irreproachable". And the highest-ranking among them, the director of
the national police Frédéric Veaux, who knows neither the case nor the
defendant, but found the time to come and defend his agent! Finally,
Steve's family heard the defendant, since promoted to Lyon, denounce "an
injustice", and having regretted having "been pilloried". Finally,
unsurprisingly, the prosecutor requested a simple "principle sentence".
The decision will be made on September 20, 2024.
Sources: lemonde.fr and médiapart.fr
Call for solidarity
As the Olympic flame passed through Bayonne, a group of people expressed
their support for the Palestinian people. This was enough for them to be
violently taken away, held for about 1h30 at the police station (under
the pretext of an identity check), and to end up being fined (at least
EUR945 fine) and their flags confiscated. It is possible to contribute
to the costs related to these actions by making a donation on the
helloasso.com website for the Basque association elkartasun-kutxa.
In Vénissieux (Rhône), police violence reveals the distress of a
neighborhood facing the forces of law and order
Iheb Cheriaa was beaten by police officers on June 4, at his workplace.
Many videos, viewed hundreds of thousands of times, show shocking
scenes. Neighborhood residents point out the behavior of the specialized
field brigade (BST). This brigade, which reports to the Vénissieux
police station, has already been implicated in the deaths of Adam and
Raihane, shot dead in 2022 for "refusing to comply." Many neighborhood
residents know this brigade by heart, to the point that some can cite
the first names and nicknames of its members.
Source: Médiapart.fr
https://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4238
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