France planning to allow use of algorithms to detect extremism online

Macron under pressure to harden terrorism laws amid growing row over security in run-up to election

The French government is planning to harden counter-terrorism laws, permitting the use of algorithms to detect online extremist activity, amid a growing political row over security in the run up to next year's presidential race.

The president, Emmanuel Macron, is under pressure over a spate of recent terror attacks, often committed by isolated young men armed with knives and unknown to the security services. The profile of the most recent attackers - including a Tunisian man who killed a police employee in a quiet commuter town west of Paris on Friday - is very different from the major terrorist gun and bomb attacks on Paris in 2015, which were coordinated by people who had previously fought in Syria or Iraq.