Reuters; France to propose sanctions at EU level on Russian firms spreading disinformation
"France will propose EU-wide level sanctions on those behind spreading disinformation amid what Paris sees as growing efforts by Russia to destabilise the bloc, Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne on Tuesday."
CATHLEEN O’GRADY , Science; THE RECKONING
"Part of the failure lies with France’s law on research ethics, Amiel says, which is out of step with international standards. “It’s provincial,” he says. “And it’s really a problem.” Because the law allows some human studies to proceed without ethical approval, Amiel says, similar violations are ongoing elsewhere in France, though not at the scale of the IHU’s. The best solution would be to overhaul the law, he says—but “I don’t think it’s a priority for the government at the moment.”
The close relationship between political powers and scientific institutions in France is also to blame for the foot-dragging institutional response, Lacombe says. Without external voices—like Bik, Frank, Besançon, Molimard, and Garcia—“I’m not sure that things would have moved,” she says."
Ian Casey, BBC; Magali Berdah: Dozens jailed in France's largest cyberbully case
"Twenty-eight people have been jailed for up to 18 months for the harassment of an influencer in France's largest cyberbullying case to date.
Judges found the accused guilty of harassing Magali Berdah, spurred on by a campaign by the French rapper Booba against "thieving influencers"...
Ms Berdah has built a prominent career in France as a lifestyle and fashion expert, while also marketing other social media stars through her company Shauna Events.
Her lawyers said posts from Booba, real name Élie Yaffa, encouraged a "mob" of people online to send hateful and insulting messages to their client, something Booba denied.
The court said that each of the defendants "made a conscious choice to join in" with the cyberbullying.
The accused, aged between 20 and 49, received jail terms ranging from four to 18 months, some of which were suspended."
ROB BESCHIZZA, Boing Boing; EU legal advisor: disclosing identities of suspected copyright pirates "compatible" with EU privacy laws
"Releasing pirates' identities is "Compatible With EU Privacy Laws," says a top legal advisor to the European Union's highest court following the discovery that the French government retains more than a decade of data collected about millions of people suspected of infringing copyrights."
Melissa Davey , The Guardian; French research centre behind controversial Covid paper found to have used questionable ethics processes
"A major French research centre that produced one of the most widely cited and controversial research papers of the Covid-19 pandemic has been found by an international research team to have used questionable and concerning ethics approval processes across hundreds of studies."
"The French data protection authority on Monday gave Facebook three months to stop tracking non-users’ web activity without their consent and ordered the social network to stop some transfers of personal data to the US. The French order is the first significant action to be taken against a company transferring Europeans’ data to the US following an EU court ruling last year that struck down an agreement that had been relied on by thousands of companies, including Facebook, to avoid cumbersome EU data transfer rules."
