Op-ed published in French in l’Opinion.

Edouard Fillias and Bruno Retailleau, a French politician: “France must follow the British example and set up a unit within its armed forces to combat digital propaganda”.

Cyber-attacks, data theft and violations of privacy, digital disinformation and political destabilisation through trolls: now nearly 40 years old, the Internet has failed to live up to the promise of its youth, that of a peaceful and unified humanity. Cyberspace meant the end of the superpowers, we prophesied on the threshold of the second millennium. The illusion was short-lived.

To the east, in the land of BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi), China is weaving its authoritarian web. In the west, the United States is pulling the strings. As it always does. Between 2005 and 2016, Google will have hired nearly 200 members of the US government, the Senate Committee of Inquiry into Digital Sovereignty. At the same time, around sixty of the web giant’s employees joined the White House, government agencies and other government departments over the same period, joined the White House, government agencies or Congress. In the recesses of the American deep state, the Gafams (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) are keeping a watchful eye. And they are amassing massive amounts of data on Europeans, on our businesses, our government departments and our citizens.

But are we really doomed to become an American or even a Chinese digital colony? We must reject this inevitability. The only battles that are lost in advance are those that are not fought. But all too often in France, the State is fighting the wrong battle when it comes to digital technology. The latest example is the Avia law on online hate. At the same time as proposing to tax them, the government is preparing to give Facebook, Twitter and Google new powers to delete content, in other words to introduce privatised censorship. As well as undermining our freedoms, isn’t this an abandonment of sovereignty?

“The data of our administrations and businesses must be able to be stored in a safe place, out of reach of the public. stored in a safe place, out of reach of foreign servers, in a 100% French and European public cloud”.

Let’s stop giving the Gafams the stick to beat us with and really arm ourselves. Let’s grab the sword and the shield. The shield first, because our data must be protected. Starting with the most sensitive: that of the State, our administrations and our businesses too. They must be stored in a safe place, out of reach of foreign servers, in a 100% French and European public cloud. This is the only way to defeat the Cloud Act, the extraterritorial US law that allows the US justice system to demand our data at any time, even when it is hosted on European soil.

But we must also protect our personal data. Every day, Internet users provide the digital giants with data free of charge, data that the giants used to sell at a premium, and over which we have no control.

In other words, the scandal is twofold: economic and democratic. Internet users must be able to refuse or accept the transfer of their personal data. If they agree, they should be paid by the platforms concerned. France must be the first country to introduce data ownership, as proposed by the Génération Libre think tank.

“Why not set up an AI monitoring agency to measure the quality and transparency of algorithms with a view to it becoming European?”

Furthermore, while public authorities must protect the freedom and property of Internet users, it is also up to them to guarantee the quality of the artificial intelligences they use. As we all know from our regular experience of platforms: all too often, these AIs work not primarily in the interests of their users, but to maximise profits and ‘retain’ customers. Admittedly, it is difficult to control source code, which is too complex and, what’s more, constantly evolving. However, it is entirely feasible to check that artificial intelligences are delivering advice, recommendations and products in line with their commercial promise. Why not set up an AI control agency to measure the quality and transparency of algorithms, with the aim of becoming European? But our country cannot position itself as a key player on the digital stage if it is content with an exclusively defensive strategy. Let’s go on the offensive!

Let’s do it in the face of Gafam, of course. Let’s not just warn about the risks of Libra, the digital currency that Facebook wants to create.
Libra, the digital currency that Facebook wants to create: let’s establish the principle of banning it and think about creating a public cryptocurrency, as proposed by the Senate’s committee of enquiry. Similarly, the French tax on Gafam is unsatisfactory because it will depend on the declarations made by these groups.

Being offensive also means resisting attempts to manipulate our opinions and destabilise our institutions by foreign actors who opportunistically use the digital weapon. From the Cambridge analytica affair to jihad 2.0, the facts demonstrate the reality of the threat. The British have become aware of this challenge to the collective security of our democracies. That’s why they have created a unit within their army, the 77 brigade, to win this information war. France must follow their example and, under the supervision of the parliamentary intelligence delegation, set up a unit to combat digital propaganda.

“Let’s focus our investments on our competitive advantages! Thanks to its scientific, mathematical and technical capital, France has everything it takes to become a leader in artificial intelligence and quantum computing”.

Finally, to compete on equal terms in the digital space, we also need to set
strategic priorities. To gain dominant positions, it is always preferable to concentrate forces rather than disperse them. French Tech is undeniably a reservoir of talent and innovation, but without clear priorities, it cannot constitute a real power strategy for France. Let’s focus our investments on our competitive advantages! Thanks to its scientific, mathematical and technical capital, France has everything it needs to become a leader in AI. Similarly, it needs to step up its research and innovation efforts in the next disruptive technology, quantum computing. Our country can also become a spearhead for new virtual imaging technologies, as Dassault Systèmes is already doing.

On all these issues, we need to develop alliances with our European partners on the model of enhanced cooperation. Let’s open our eyes: what we are experiencing today, through the rise in tensions between nations and the crisis in post-war international governance, is the return of power. This power is no longer just military or economic; it is now technological. Because cyberspace is both “soft” and “hard” power. As a vehicle for representations, sometimes – unfortunately – conditioning opinions, digital technology is now seen as the pursuit of war by other means, as demonstrated by the development of hacking or the strategies pursued by states or proto-state actors.

For us French, the difficulty lies in the fact that in France the dominant culture among public officials does not lead them towards digital technology, or even towards power, because sovereignty often seems to them to be an outdated idea. But it is not. Sovereignty remains the unsurpassable horizon of politics. Unsurpassable but not immutable. Because the conditions under which it is exercised are changing. Yesterday, the atom was the top strategic priority. Today, it’s the algorithm. But we are still faced with the same challenge: do we still want to retain control of our common destiny? Or do we prefer, out of laziness or weakness, to leave it in other hands? As far as we are concerned, the choice has been made: sovereignty for France and freedom for the French.