Not The Onion: a french group has been arrested 5 years ago and are currently being judged. A picture of macron with a dick drawn on it is cited as evidence of plotting a terrorism attack

BastingChemina@slrpnk.net to World News@lemmy.world – 419 points – Criminalization of encryption : the 8 december case
laquadrature.net

To be fair they were also using encrypted messaging to talk to each other like WhatsApp and Signal, they even show their mom how to use it which is extremely suspicious.

“All members of this group were particularly suspicious, only communicating with each other using encrypted applications, in particular Signal, and encrypting their computers and devices […].

The Investigating Judge

https://www.laquadrature.net/en/2023/06/05/criminalization-of-encryption-the-8-december-case/ https://www.laquadrature.net/en/2023/10/06/the-beginning-of-the-8-december-trial-is-also-the-judgement-of-the-right-to-privacy-and-encryption/

when the DGSI [a French security agency charged with counter-espionage, counter-terrorism, countering cybercrime and surveillance of potentially threatening groups] has questioned Bastien about what he thinks of Macron. A photograph on his computer is mentioned, which according to them details the President's security arrangements for the July 14th parade. (...)

The device in question (an aerial photo taken from the press) is highlighted in such a way as to draw a dick. A dick.

The link is made with Bastien's passion for drones. The implication is that he could have used a drone to attack this dick-shaped device using explosives.

https://www.auposte.fr/j7-quis-terroristiat-ipsos-terroristes/

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Here are just some of the practices that are being misused as evidence of terrorist behavior:

– the use of applications such as Signal, WhatsApp, Wire, Silence or ProtonMail to encrypt communications;

– using Internet privacy tools such as VPN, Tor or Tails;

– protecting ourselves against the exploitation of our personal data by GAFAM via services such as /e/OS, LineageOS, F-Droid;

– encrypting digital media;

– organizing and participating in digital hygiene training sessions;

– simple possession of technical documentation.

Welp, guess I'm a terrorist then.

The good news is that it works.

Sure this is against the French police, not the NSA, but it shows that by using these tools the police struggle to track you and what you are doing.

If they had some easy backdoor we would probably not see the push against encryption that we are currently seeing in Europe.

Problem is, they're still entangled in the legal system. That's a fucking wack outcome. Agreed that it's good the methods work, but that they're teetering on the brink for their freedom is.. frightening.

I have full-disk encryption enabled on each of my devices. Guess I’m a baddie after all.

If you have a smart phone you're a terrorist by that logic.

In particular, they point to decontextualised statements and the use of trivial facts (sports and digital activities, reading and listening to music, etc.) as evidence against them.

Do you listen to music? That's right. Straight to jail.

Rage Against the Machine? That band is anti-family and is pro-terrorism

Curiously, these are also practices used by secret agents working on behalf of the true power behind all democratic governments.

How is using encrypted communication and "showing their mother" suspicious? All the evidence seems extremely circumstantial and they were locked up for 5 years before a trial? The whole thing smells fishy...

NGL if I was locked up for 5 years without a trial for something this stupid I'd probably turn into a terrorist.

Which is fine by the oppressors. They don't actually want to get rid of terrorism; they want an eternal enemy to fight. They're not trying to protect anyone; they're trying to justify their existence.

I wager they are using this to as a launchpad to attack personal encryption and other data safety practices that the government (and more importantly, their corporate backers) cant access.

To give more context, one person came back for from Rojava to France in 2018.

Rojava is an area in Syria fighting against Daesh, they also experimented a lot around different political structures which interested a lot of militants in Europe.

When he came back the DGSI flagged this person as a potential terrorist and start tracking him and the people he knows, before violently arresting them and keeping them in prison for up to 15 months for some of them.

Then there is the whole investigation for 5 years. They did not found any evidence during this investigation but rather than admitting the fact that they fucked up and that everyone in the group is innocent, they are trying to argue that all the evidence have been hidden by the fact they encrypted everything.

In this case the DGSI used methods that are illegal unless "Justified by elements of fact" (I don't know how to translate this part). So if they are innocent the DGSI will be in trouble for their illegal actions unless they are judged guilty. If their are guilty the dgsi will argue that their actions were justified to stop a terrorist attack.

Then there is the whole investigation for 5 years. They did not found any evidence during this investigation but rather than admitting the fact that they fucked up and that everyone in the group is innocent, they are trying to argue that all the evidence have been hidden by the fact they encrypted everything.

Figured it was something like this. It sounds like one of those "The police know they fucked up and are now grasping at any straw they can find in an attempt to cover their asses" situations.

"We can't find any evidence. But we definitely know they're guilty! They just covered their tracks so well that there is no evidence of wrongdoing available anywhere. Given the situation at hand and how obvious it is, without evidence, that these guys have committed a crime, we better lock them up."

They drew a dick on Macron.

Which is actually kinda hilarious. Until the dick sent his goons…

They drew a dick on Macron.

Bit redundant, that.

I can only assume that the only reason he got elected was because they confused his name for macaron, and everyone loves cookies, right?

I mean? Macarons are sweet tasty and frequently fun-colored. What’s not to love

According to Wikipedia, they were arrested 3 years ago, not 5. Of the 9 people arrested, 2 were released after 3 days, the other 7 were charged, but only 1 of them was still kept detained after "a few months", and he was released for health reasons in April (though he still is charged).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8\_December\_2020\_incident

I repeat.

Seriously though, this is terrible. The war on internet privacy and freedom is becoming more obvious though.

That article is awful. Is it a machine translated article? Can anyone summarize it. I couldn't stand trying to read it, it was so poorly written.

The report seems like it may have been a translation. Their proofreader likely just looked for spelling mistakes, and the grammar was unchanged.

Does a translation bot even make spelling mistakes? I'd think all errors would be grammatical

Er, I'm not saying that there were spelling mistakes, just that spelling mistakes are likely the only thing looked for by whoever is putting eyes on an article before it is posted. I, for instance, would be able to check for spelling mistakes in my second language, but would likely not see grammar issues unless they were glaringly obvious.

It's unfortunately the only article I've found about this case that was written in English.

France is starting to sound more and more like Turkey or Hungary.