A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #342 - Big Brother 342 - Summer 2024 (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

* 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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