Article 6 (para II and III) of the SREN Bill would force providers to create the means to mandatorily block websites on a government provided list encoded into the browser.
French person here. If their previous attempts at creating anything digital are any indication of the future we are in for a fun ride. I fully expect them to implement the blocking by hiding the page behind a black png.
Either rioting in the streets or widespread adoption of some open-source niche browser. Or both.
(If this passes, it’s either going to go unenforced or hit massive legal challenges—not a lawyer, but I think it’s incompatible with freedom of association, which appears to be a legal right in France.)
How would France even implement a way to restrict what version of software you download from the internet? IP based restrictions are easily defeated and this doesn’t account for 3rd party sites based anywhere in the world except France.
It’s as though this proposal was dreamed up by someone who has never installed anything on their PC.
Like are they going to block entire repositories? When you apt get install x from within france to they expect repositories to magically give you the french version?
That’s a good question but I imagine it would be like when you have a fresh windows install and use Edge to download Firefox or Chrome but instead you’d get them from an unofficial source or with a VPN connected to a different country.
Well in the case of Windows, the browser is integral to the OS so they couldn’t/wouldn’t ship it without one. Even if that is a restricted browser, there should be a not too difficult way to use it to download an unrestricted browser.
Could you imagine what would happen if Google, Apple, Mozilla, etc said “okay, you just can’t have a web browser in france”
The french government will just make their own web browser and we’ll be well on our way to the great firewall of france.
French person here. If their previous attempts at creating anything digital are any indication of the future we are in for a fun ride. I fully expect them to implement the blocking by hiding the page behind a black png.
So then would their access to the internet be french toast? Also, a governmyth designed browser, and we thought internet explorer was bad
Either rioting in the streets or widespread adoption of some open-source niche browser. Or both.
(If this passes, it’s either going to go unenforced or hit massive legal challenges—not a lawyer, but I think it’s incompatible with freedom of association, which appears to be a legal right in France.)
How would France even implement a way to restrict what version of software you download from the internet? IP based restrictions are easily defeated and this doesn’t account for 3rd party sites based anywhere in the world except France.
How would you get a browser without a browser though? Memorize the ff download link and wget it perhaps?
It’s as though this proposal was dreamed up by someone who has never installed anything on their PC.
Like are they going to block entire repositories? When you
apt get install xfrom within france to they expect repositories to magically give you the french version?That’s a good question but I imagine it would be like when you have a fresh windows install and use Edge to download Firefox or Chrome but instead you’d get them from an unofficial source or with a VPN connected to a different country.
But you wouldnt have edge either. No web browser would be on your OS at all
Well in the case of Windows, the browser is integral to the OS so they couldn’t/wouldn’t ship it without one. Even if that is a restricted browser, there should be a not too difficult way to use it to download an unrestricted browser.
@shortwavesurfer @psychothumbs that would never happen or be effective. Even Chinese citizens get through the China Firewall