2023-09-18 11:30:00
INTERNET – Adopted in July by the Senate, the bill aimed at securing and regulating the digital space (SREN) will be examined from Tuesday September 19 to Friday September 22 in the National Assembly. The text, which aims, among other things, to fight against “exposure of minors to pornographic content”, is currently the subject of more than 800 amendments tabled by deputies. One of these proposals has sparked heated controversy since Saturday, even pushing its author, MP Mounir Belhamiti of the Renaissance party, to withdraw it. The elected representative of the 1st constituency of Loire-Atlantique proposed “to prohibit any user of a social network from publishing, commenting or interacting using a virtual private network” (VPN (1)).
What does the SREN bill provide? Unanimously adopted in July by the Senate, the text intends “secure the Internet” and adapt French law to new European regulations, particularly Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA). Many measures are proposed, such as strengthening the fight against minors’ access to pornographic sites, the creation of “anti-scam filters”the fight against “deepfakes” and even the “ban” from social networks.
VPNs in the crosshairs
Cloud regulation and protection against disinformation from foreign media are also among the provisions of the bill. So many measures which are the subject of a total of more than 820 amendments from the deputies, who will have to examine the text in committee at the Assembly from Tuesday September 19.
VPNs are at the heart of many proposed amendments. These devices, called “virtual private network” (Virtual Private Network, editor’s note), offer their users the possibility of browsing the Internet anonymously. These are servers to which Internet users connect to access, via an encrypted, discreet and secure tunnel, websites or digital services.
Legal in France, VPNs strengthen the cybersecurity of Internet users and businesses and allow their users to avoid censorship and free themselves from certain restrictive constraints, while not being identifiable.
But in the eyes of some MPs, VPNs above all make it possible to “extract [du] French legislative framework”. They propose amendments to force publishers to limit access to networks “subject to French or European legislation and regulations”. Another amendment, tabled by elected officials from the Democratic Movement, suggests requiring VPN providers to verify the age of subscribers.
The most controversial proposal comes from the elected representatives Renaissance, the presidential party in the Assembly. The text suggests “to prohibit any user of a social network from publishing, commenting or interacting using a virtual private network”. “Although social networks constitute a real tool at the service of freedom of expression, they can in no case be a lawless zone where freedom of expression is without limits”, estimate a few deputies, Mounir Belhamiti, elected from the 1st constituency of Loire-Atlantique, in the lead.
VPN providers should therefore “put in place detection mechanisms to identify connections from a virtual private network used by their users” and these latter “would then no longer be able to publish, comment or interact”.
The amendment withdrawn after a heated controversy
Neither one nor two, the reactions are unleashed. Internet Society France, an NGO which represents Internet users in Internet Governance bodies in France, “finds it harmful that such an amendment is proposed (…) The use of VPNs is a method of security, particularly for businesses. Limiting them is an attack on security”lit. “This amendment is therefore nonsense at a time of increasing cybersecurity issues (…) We call for its withdrawal or a massive vote against”continues the NGO.
This amendment is therefore nonsense at a time when the problems of #cybersecurite.
It also proves – unfortunately – a technical ignorance of the consequences of such a text.
We call for its withdrawal or a massive vote against it.Cc @jnbarrot
— Internet Society FR (@isoc_france) September 16, 2023
Mounir Belhamiti even finds himself disowned by another Renaissance elected official. Éric Bothorel, deputy for the 5th constituency of Côtes-d’Armor, estimated what “the ban on VPNs, if it were proposed, would not strengthen the security of internet users, but on the contrary a considerable weakening of their experience on the web”.
As for Internet users, they reacted with the same momentum. While some point out that a ban on VPNs is also “damaging for companies and for victims of cyber harassment”others regret that French deputies are proposing measures that we find in the “totalitarian regimes”. They cite North Korea, Iran and the United Arab Emirates but also China, where, despite advanced control of the Internet network, it remains possible to circumvent the bans.
Faced with the controversy, Mounir Belhamiti gave in and announced on Sunday September 17 the withdrawal of his amendment. “I will not submit the amendment for discussion so as not to disrupt a debate which requires serenity”he wrote in a post “By tabling an amendment aimed at prohibiting publication (and not consultation) on social networks via a VPN connection, it is obvious that I cannot imagine its adoption as is”, he justifies himself. The RE MP, who says he wonders about “the ineffectiveness of our means of tracking people who commit crimes online”, “regrets the controversy created by this appeal amendment.”
The determination of the French state to want at all costs “secure the Internet” increased tenfold this summer after the riots and urban violence which shook many French cities. If the authorities most often mentioned the prevention of scams, the protection of data, the protection of minors from pornographic sites, the emphasis is increasingly placed on “hate speech” but above all on what the State considers to be “disinformation”.
Note :
(1) In computing, a VPN (English: virtual private network) is a system which allows you to create a direct link between computers, but which isolates their exchanges from the rest of internet traffic. It can be used to surf more or less anonymously, by allowing a different IP address to be used via a remote connection.
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