National register of influence, freezing of financial assets, expanded algorithmic surveillance: the upper house has largely approved several measures as part of a Macronist text, already largely adopted in the National Assembly at the end of March. “With this proposed law, we are creating transparency on foreign influence activities and we are giving ourselves the means to detect and sanction the authors of information manipulation operations,” underlined the minister responsible for Europe Jean-Noël Barrot.
New Caledonian news informed the debates throughout the evening, with the government’s accusation of Azerbaijani interference as a backdrop, and especially the large-scale cyberattack launched on Tuesday against the archipelago in an attempt to saturate the local network. The French Computer Security Agency (Anssi) urged “extreme caution” regarding the origin of this attack.
“Provocation”
In the Senate, some did not take the same precautions. “The latest provocation from Russia, which did not hesitate (…) to bring down the entire Internet network of New Caledonia, is a new symbol of the urgency to identify and combat foreign interference in our country”, alerted Senator Horizons Claude Malhuret, for whom “a new war has begun, which we are slow to understand”.
He, like others, was also concerned about the growing influence of China in the archipelago, while the social network TikTok, whose parent company is Chinese, was banned there but the government was ordered to justify its measure by the Council of State. Some also cited the “red hands” sprayed on the Shoah Memorial in recent days, a defacement that also fuels suspicions of foreign manipulation.
“The threat today is more protean, omnipresent, more durable,” supported Senator (attached LR) Agnès Canayer, defending this text which according to her will offer “tools to complete the French legal arsenal”. The approval of the Luxembourg Palace was broad, even if senators from many benches regretted that the text was only “a first approach” in the fight against foreign interference.
“Unfortunately, it took dramatic events in New Caledonia for this awareness to arise suddenly, for some to realize that when we talk about state interference, it is not a myth” , lamented socialist senator Gisèle Jourda.
“This text is a start when we need a start,” pointed out the elected official, who failed to broaden the scope of the law with an “awareness” component among young people and local elected officials.
Reinforced sanctions
In substance, the bill intends to establish an obligation for representatives of foreign interests who lobby in France to register on a national register, with a regime of criminal sanctions for offenders. This register will be managed by the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP).
Another sensitive but adopted measure was the extension to cases of foreign interference of an experimental algorithmic surveillance system launched in 2015, intended to identify connection data on the internet. This tool, contested by a part of the left which fears an attack on private life, is currently reserved solely for the purpose of terrorism.
“Faced with this culture of surveillance, it is essential to recognize that the algorithm is not neutral and implies a certain ideology,” alerted Pascal Savoldelli, senator from the communist group, the only one to have voted against the text.
The text also provides for the possibility of freezing the financial assets of persons, companies or entities engaging in defined interference activities. The Senate also introduced an “aggravating circumstance” into the penal code for crimes and offenses “committed with the aim of serving the interests of a foreign power, a foreign company or organization.”
Senators and deputies having reached a slightly different text, they will now have to agree on a compromise version during a joint joint committee.