After Paris Attacks, Proposed French Law Would Block Tor and Forbid Free Wi-Fi

by
Anonymous Coward
in internet on (#X2TG)
"After the recent Paris terror attacks, the French government is proposing to forbid and block the use of the Tor anonymity network, according to an internal document from the Ministry of Interior seen by French newspaper Le Monde.

That document lays out two proposed pieces of legislation, one around the state of emergency, and the other concerning counter-terrorism.
In the former, the French government is considering to "Forbid free and shared wi-fi connections" during a state of emergency. This comes from a police opinion included in the document: the reason being that it is apparently difficult to track individuals who use public wi-fi networks.

The latter piece of legislation, meanwhile, says the government is considering "to block or forbid communications of the Tor network." The legislation, according to Le Monde, could be presented as early as January 2016."

- http://motherboard.vice.com/read/after-paris-attacks-proposed-french-law-would-block-tor-and-forbid-free-wi-fi
Reply 14 comments

Not really (Score: 2, Interesting)

by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-12-09 16:38 (#X5N0)

Correction: The initial headline and copy of this article suggested that the proposals to block Tor and control free wifi were already part of a proposed law. These are in fact points that the French police and gendarmes would like to see included in the bill, according to the document seen by Le Monde. The headline and copy have been updated to clarify this; we apologise for the error.

Doubtful (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-10 08:56 (#X7XJ)

Highly doubtful that any law could actually do this. The enforcement would be highly costly, time consuming and have low impact. Unless they can walk around and then shoot people who violate the law.

Re: Doubtful (Score: 1)

by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2015-12-10 14:55 (#X8YQ)

I also don't get the distinction between "free" and shared wifi. If they have trouble tracking people using shared wifi, then does it really matter if they pay or not?

I mean if France's favorite restaurant included wifi access with their Royale with Cheese, it wouldn't help anything.

How about block islam? (Score: 1, Insightful)

by entropy@pipedot.org on 2015-12-12 20:42 (#XGKZ)

That'd fix the terrorist problem.

Re: How about block islam? (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-12-12 21:06 (#XGNJ)

There have been more deaths in the west due to Christian terrorists, than Islamic ones.

Re: How about block islam? (Score: 1)

by entropy@pipedot.org on 2015-12-13 17:47 (#XJSJ)

Maybe 1,500 years ago.

Re: How about block islam? (Score: 2, Informative)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-12-13 19:27 (#XJZM)

No, recently.

Anti-government, secessionists, anti-abortionists, KKK, neo-nazis, anti-secular evangelicals, conspiracy theorists, etc. Not to mention all the new anti-islamists crazies who go and murder random brown-skinned people.

Even with just mass shootings, only a tiny minority are done by Islamists.

Not a great list, but this should put things in proper perspective:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_United_States#2010.E2.80.93present

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_terrorism#United_States

I don't mean to be US-only, just that the english Wiki doesn't do an in-depth job on much else.

Even more on-the-nose:

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/05/muslims-only-carried-out-2-5-percent-of-terrorist-attacks-on-u-s-soil-between-1970-and-2012.html

Re: How about block islam? (Score: 1)

by entropy@pipedot.org on 2015-12-14 05:07 (#XM3M)

So it's just a coincidence France lets a bunch of muslims in...and now has terrorist problem...right?

Re: How about block islam? (Score: 1, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-12-14 05:20 (#XM4N)

It must be pure coincidence that France now has such a serious social problem with rape and assault of females that they now advise females to cover themselves so as not to invite attention and not to go near males in cars.

Re: How about block islam? (Score: 2, Informative)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-12-14 16:34 (#XNSD)

So it's just a coincidence France lets a bunch of muslims in...and now has terrorist problem...right?
France has had "terrorist problems" for CENTURIES... And Germany has just as many Muslims as France, with far fewer incidents of terrorism. All those Syrian refugees aren't going to France, so Germany should have a significantly larger Muslim population in a few years.

Nearly a year-old, but directly on-the-nose:
Want to guess what percent of the terrorist attacks there were committed by Muslims over the past five years? Wrong. That is, unless you said less than 2 percent.
...
We are talking about groups like France's FLNC, which advocates an independent nation for the island of Corsica. In December 2013, FLNC terrorists carried out simultaneous rocket attacks against police stations in two French cities.
...
one of the worst terror attacks ever in Europe in 2011, when Anders Breivik slaughtered 77 people in Norway to further his anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and pro-"Christian Europe" agenda as he stated in his manifesto,
- http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/14/are-all-terrorists-muslims-it-s-not-even-close.html
- http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/01/08/3609796/islamist-terrorism-europe/

Re: How about block islam? (Score: 1)

by entropy@pipedot.org on 2015-12-17 03:42 (#XYNG)

Your argument seems compelling, at first. And terrorism by other factions was common in the past, but what about recently? Does the Vatican openly place a bounty for killing someone that doesn't like catholicism? (http://news.yahoo.com/pakistani-official-places-bounty-anti-islam-filmmaker-214532413.html) ... Also here's a handy website that lists islam motivated terror attacks:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

Your website analyzes attacks 1980-2005... That seems to be a cherry-picked year range, and 1980-1990 is incredibly less relevant than 2011-2015. Here are the attacks in 2015 alone:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/attacks-2015.htm

Here are 2014:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/attacks-2014.htm

Also... Why don't islamic countries want islamic refugees? Saudi Arabia has tents that could house millions of them, yet they don't actually let them in. If their country isn't working, and they are far less willing than other cultures to adapt to a different way of life...what is the point of letting them in France, or other countries? They will just muck it up.

Re: How about block islam? (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-12-20 07:15 (#Y17Y)

Does the Vatican openly place a bounty for killing someone that doesn't like catholicism?
There's no such large organization for Muslims (nor for Protestants for that matter). A Pakistani politician is not comparable. There's plenty of Christian hate groups trying to kill muslims:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/man-build-ray-weapon-kill-muslims-sentenced-prison/story?id=35807538

There's much more overt anti-Muslim rhetoric from Jewish rabbis. Those "price tag attacks" against Muslims have been rather prolific.
terrorism by other factions was common in the past, but what about recently?
Everything above is quite recent. Anders Breivik's rampage was just back in 2011.

You should really have read through the links I provided and not just the HEADLINE! They do a good job answering your (loaded) questions very directly:
in 2013, there were 152 terror attacks in Europe. Only two of them were "religiously motivated," while 84 were predicated upon ethno-nationalist or separatist beliefs.
...
In December 2013, FLNC terrorists carried out simultaneous rocket attacks against police stations in two French cities. And in Greece in late 2013, the left-wing Militant Popular Revolutionary Forces shot and killed two members of the right-wing political party Golden Dawn.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/14/are-all-terrorists-muslims-it-s-not-even-close.html
.
Why don't islamic countries want islamic refugees?
Turkey is taking responsibility for fully HALF of Syrian refugees, at great expense. Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt are home to nearly all the rest. The number going to Europe is miniscule by comparison:

"In three days in September 2014, Turkey received some 130,000 refugees from Syria - more than the entire European Union had in the past three years"
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/11/20/amnesty-international-85-percent-syrian-refugees-in-turkey-living-outside.html

Successful Muslim (Gulf) countries like Saudi Arabia are JUST AS DISTANT from Syria as the EU is. Those same distant Muslim countries ARE now contributing significant amounts of money to support the current crop of Syrian refugees (though it certainly took them quite a while, and they could reasonably be doing more). They have some peculiar issues with taking in more refugees, which seem quite strange to someone in a western country:

"these countries are already overloaded with foreigners. For example, 88 percent of the population of the United Arab Emirates are foreigners. For Qatar, it's 85 and Kuwait 70 percent." http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-09-03/what-are-gulf-countries-doing-help-syrian-refugee-crisis

Lots more useful information is available here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War

Re: How about block islam? (Score: 1)

by entropy@pipedot.org on 2015-12-17 21:23 (#Y1FH)

Ethno-nationalist, or separatists beliefs are not religiously motivated? Here's one attack in 2013 that caught my eye:
2013.11.04 Thailand Pattani 52-year-old woman is shot to death by Muslim 'separatists'.
Guess that wouldn't be in the statistics...but islamic separatists seem kind of religiously motivated to me.

Even if they are relatively tame in europe, they are not in other parts of the world.(See previously posted list of terror attacks)