AdBlock and Signal are for terrorists, according to French govt (2023) [video](www.youtube.com)
80 pointsby pabs36 hours ago9 comments
  • Fnoord3 hours ago
    FBI recommends using an ad blocker (2022) (ic3.gov) posted Sept 8, 2024, 230 comments [1]

    Another fun one: Signal is the No. 1 downloaded app in the Netherlands. But why? | TechCrunch, from March 2 2025

    [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41483581

    [2] https://old.reddit.com/r/signal/comments/1j38sgw/signal_is_t...

  • ghssds3 hours ago
    Skip the video and read the source: https://www.laquadrature.net/2023/06/05/affaire-du-8-decembr...
    • yorwbaan hour ago
      English version https://www.laquadrature.net/en/2023/06/05/criminalization-o...
      • anigbrowl35 minutes ago
        I don't find any of this persuasive because nowhere does it articulate who or how the defendants came to be accused of anything in the first place. I can not make my mind about how to feel when the context is removed, even if I think the state's argument is entirely specious.
        • yorwba17 minutes ago
          I think La Quadrature du Net don't consider it relevant whether the accused are guilty or not; they don't want encrypted communication to ever be included in the evidence against someone.

          I agree that that's a bit too much binary thinking, and a collection of separate actions that would be legal on their own can nonetheless add up to evidence of a crime when taken together.

    • PunchyHamster2 hours ago
      that would make DRMed games qualify under their definition of terrorism, because it's also using encryption and obfuscation
      • godelskian hour ago
        I wonder what the "s" stands for in https...
  • ptek3 hours ago
    Was contracted to a New Zealand government department and all the Edge browsers had AdBlock installed by default. I guess the New Zealand government that I worked for is a terrorist organisation. The department that I worked for did take other peoples money though. (Won't give any more information than that).
    • broodbucket2 hours ago
      They're terrorists for not having uBlock Origin instead
  • BLKNSLVR4 hours ago
    I'm a 3x terrorist because I also use GrapheneOS.

    Seems a modern problem is the significant watering down of what "terrorist" means. If blocking ads has become three measure of a terrorist:

    If everyone's a terrorist... No one is.

    The word no longer has any meaning. Eventually there will be two labels to apply to everyone: "corporate sheep" and "terrorist".

    In which case I will always strive towards terrorist.

    WTF is going on with France?

    • marcus_holmes2 hours ago
      Not only France. As was always predicted to happen, governments are finding the allure of classifying undesirable organisations as terrorists too hard to resist. The UK with Palestine Action, the USA with the Muslim Brotherhood [0].

      We need to repeal the War Against Terror acts that allow this to happen.

      [0] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/11/desi...

      • thatguy0900an hour ago
        The US has even moved on to "narcoterrorists", you can just blow those ones up whenever
        • dolmen12 minutes ago
          And France is following that path too.
    • broodbucket2 hours ago
      GrapheneOS is moving their servers out of France if you weren't aware
  • BLKNSLVRan hour ago
    I wonder what danger there is in over-classifying terrorism.

    If someone, as a purely theoretical example, feels as if they fall under various 'modern' classifications of terrorist, then it could break down certain walls of reasoning preventing them from participating in activities that would fall under the 'historic' classification of terrorist.

    What I'm saying is: Any government that's over-using the term is (potentially) actively participating in the radicalisation of a portion of their constituency.

    And that is a dead-fucking-wrong approach; 180 degrees away from the correct heading. Gross negligence.

  • codetiger5 hours ago
    Ah, just when I thought I was saving the world with these tools.
    • necheffa4 hours ago
      One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist.
      • aitchnyuan hour ago
        If we cannot decide, we call them guerrillas - Ellie (fictional)/Carl Sagan
  • anonym293 hours ago
    Increasingly seems like the French government are the real terrorists.
  • theoldgreybeard5 hours ago
    Guess I’m a terrorist.
    • senectus13 hours ago
      we all are, anyone not in goverment is a terrorist.
  • dvntsemicolon5 hours ago
    [flagged]