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 Tails7 ;
• 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.

This is how the criminalisation of digital practices fits in with the French government’s strategy of repressing all social protests. Reaffirming the right to encryption therefore means opposing the authoritarian abuses of the government that seeks to endlessly extend the scope of “counter-terrorism” policies by designating an ever-growing number of domestic enemies. After the repression of Muslims, now it’s the turn of “eco-terrorists”, “intellectual terrorists” and finally, geeks armed with encrypted messaging systems. Faced with such a situation, the only question left seems to be: “And you, what kind of terrorist are you?"

Criminalization of encryption : the 8 december case

It seems that France is willing to join an ever-growing list of countries where I don’t want to set foot in.