In New Caledonia, the government has considered “lowering from 5G to 2G for all social networks”

While the political situation in New Caledonia is hardly improving, we learn that the metropolitan government once considered completely cutting off mobile internet in the territory.

Banning TikTok in New Caledonia was a compromise. Despite the debated legality of such a measure, it turns out that the situation could have been much worse for the Kanaks and Caldoches. Indeed, a complete shutdown of mobile internet was briefly considered by the metropolitan government.

Cut off all mobile Internet

During a hearing at the National Assembly, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin admitted to having considered “to lower all social networks from 5G to 2G“. Behind the somewhat convoluted twist, we can therefore guess the idea that was considered for a moment: cutting off all mobile internet on the archipelago in order to limit communications and therefore potentially disruptive gatherings. An operation which would have made circumventing censorship via VPN very complicated.

Since it is technically very complicated, if not even impossible, to cut off access to 4G (the deployment of 5G has not started in New Caledonia) only for certain sites or social platforms, it is a safe bet that the measure envisaged by the metropolitan government would have resulted in cutting off mobile internet throughout the archipelago. Or, Gérald Darmanin awkwardly mentioned the possibility of filtering, at the DNS level, access to all social networks, and not just TikTok.

A measure that is difficult to apply

To justify this relatively radical proposal, Gérald Darmanin evokes the Senate report on the urban revolts of 2023. In the latter, however, it is not a question of cutting access to high and very high speed mobile, but simply of “allow prefects to request, for a limited period, the deactivation of certain functionalities of social network applications.»

As BFM TV notes, however, if bringing down 3G/4G in New Caledonia is legally possible due to the presence of a single (public) operator in the territory, this would prove very difficult to do in mainland France. due to the multiplicity of private operators and European law which takes precedence over French law. Not to mention that, in Nouméa as in Paris, limiting access to mobile internet would have significant side effects, both in terms of communication for emergency services and for individuals who telework, for example.

Source : BFMTV