French president Nikolas Sarkozy’s televised address in the wake of the tragic events in Toulouse this week could become a turning point for freedom of speech on the Internet. Before leaping to his death in a hail of bullets, 24-year-old Algerian-French man Mohamed Merah confessed to the shooting dead of three soldiers, three jewish school children and a rabbi in protest at French military operations in Afghanistan and the treatment of children in Palestine. Mareh’s actions have already attracted close scrutiny with questions asked as to how a quiet young man who liked talking about cars and girls became a spree killer claiming ties to al Qaeda. According to Sarkozy the Internet, while not exclusively to blame, had a hand in it.
The French President’s argument goes that Mareh was radicalised through a process of forced recruitment facilitated by hate-filled Internet chat rooms. In response, Sarkozy has pledged to criminalise anyone who frequents such websites that "advocate terrorism or call for hatred and violence." He continued: "The world you represent is not a parallel universe where legal and moral rules, and more generally all the basic rules that govern society in democratic societies do not apply." In other words, forget class conflict, racial tensions or political ideology; the real evil is the "parallel world" created by a communications network enabling likeminded individuals to connect and share information and ideas.
As the president of a country steeped in secular ideals the concept of policing lines of communication should be political suicide but it’s not the first time Sarkozy has said someone should put manners on the Internet. At last May’s eG8 forum in Paris, some 1,500 delegates – including former Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos – gathered to discuss the intersection between the real and Digital Worlds and how democracy can be preserved without compromising either.
Sarkozy’s welcoming tone praised the Digital World for ensuring greater transparency from governments, more awareness of human rights abuses and the empowerment of once oppressed people. As a counterpoint, however, Sarkozy also warned against the Internet becoming a substitute for democracy, (also referring to the Internet as a ‘parallel universe’), reminding the audience that "Governments are the legitimate guardians of our societies and do not forget this." In retrospect it’s clear that Sarkozy was not interested in creating a dialogue as much as he wanted to deliver a polite dressing-down to the digerati. For him to come out now with talk of draconian measures against users logging to discussion forums
Unsurprisingly, digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has condemned Sarkozy’s statement as lacking definition or suggesting any new detection measure not already easily subverted. If Internet protocol addresses can be masked by people engaged in illegal file-sharing how exactly does the French government intend to subvert that technology in the uncovering of potential terrorists?
The EFF’s strongest argument against Sarkozy is that crime should be tackled based on the actions, not intentions of individuals. Limiting forum access could easily create a culture of censorship tantamount to criminalising not just hate speech but free speech. The European Court of Justice might have a thing or two to say about that.
It was Voltaire who said "I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Sarkozy’s fiery rhetoric against the Internet is also a strike against France’s cultural heritage as a free-thinking republic. In a year where he has a re-election campaign to fight that’s a dangerous game to play.
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