Paris mayor supports Olympics opening ceremony director after death threats; The Athletic, August 2, 2024

Ben Burrows and Brendan Quinn, The Athletic; Paris mayor supports Olympics opening ceremony director after death threats

"The mayor of Paris has offered her “unwavering support” to the artistic director behind the Olympics opening ceremony after he was subjected to harassment online including death threats.

Thomas Jolly has filed a complaint with authorities after the opening ceremony — which took place on Friday night — saw him targeted by “threats” and “defamation”...

A statement from Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo on Friday read: “On behalf of the City of Paris and in my own name, I would like to extend my unwavering support to Thomas Jolly in the aftermath of the threats and harassment he has been subjected to in recent days, which have led him to lodge a complaint.”

Paris’ Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH) is now investigating Jolly’s complaint.

Jolly’s complaint related to “death threats on account of his origin, death threats on account of his sexual orientation, public insults on account of his origin, public insults on account of his sexual orientation” as well as “defamation” and “threatening and insulting messages criticizing his sexual orientation and his wrongly assumed Israeli origins.”"

France to propose sanctions at EU level on Russian firms spreading disinformation; Reuters, April 2, 2024

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."

THE RECKONING; Science, March 7, 2024

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."

Magali Berdah: Dozens jailed in France's largest cyberbully case; BBC, March 19, 2024

 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."

EU legal advisor: disclosing identities of suspected copyright pirates "compatible" with EU privacy laws; Boing Boing, September 29, 2023

 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."

French research centre behind controversial Covid paper found to have used questionable ethics processes; The Guardian, August 8, 2023

 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."

French privacy regulator cracks down on Facebook's use of personal data; Reuters via Guardian, 2/8/16

Reuters via Guardian; French privacy regulator cracks down on Facebook's use of personal data:

"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."

Government Requests to Remove Online Material Increase at Google; New York Times, 12/19/13

Claire Cain Miller, New York Times; Government Requests to Remove Online Material Increase at Google: "Governments, led by the United States, are increasingly demanding that Google remove information from the Web... Often, the requests come from judges, police officers and politicians trying to hide information that is critical of them. The most common request cites defamation, often of officials... Government requests to remove information increased most significantly in Turkey and Russia because of online censorship laws, according to Google... Google also said officials were resorting to new legal methods to demand that Google remove content, such as citing copyright law to take down transcripts of political speeches or government news releases."

Twitter Removes Anti-Semitic Postings, French Jewish Group Says; New York Times, 10/19/12

Steven Erlanger and Alan Cowell, New York Times; Twitter Removes Anti-Semitic Postings, French Jewish Group Says: "Several Twitter users posting under the hashtag criticized the decision to delete the anti-Semitic posts, calling it censorship. A user calling himself Andre said: “Better to educate than censure. Shame on you Twitter.” Another, Craig McLeod, asked, “Who decides what is anti-Semitic and abusive?” Asked for comment, Twitter repeated its standard policy statement: “Twitter does not mediate content. If we are alerted to content that may be in violation of our terms of service, we will investigate each report and respond according to the policies and procedures outlined in our support pages.” No one at Twitter would talk on the record about the French posts, but it has its own criteria for regulating content and will sometimes suspend an individual account or withhold individual posts."