Macron targets encrypted content

Melenchon surges as election candidates bicker

PARIS, April 11, (RTRS): French presidential candidate and frontrunner Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he would step up efforts to get technology firms such as Google or Facebook to share encrypted content from messaging services with authorities.

Governments around the world are increasingly looking at how they can lean on major US tech companies in their efforts to prevent militant attacks and beef up security, including by asking them to do more to stop hate speech and extremist activities online.

That has sparked a debate over users’ privacy, however.

Macron, a centrist and favoured to win France’s two-part election if he makes it to a run-off on May 7, said he would require firms like Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter to rapidly remove any extremist propaganda from their sites.

Outlining his policies on security in France, which has been hit by several deadly Islamist attacks in the past two years, Macron added that he would strengthen measures requiring tech companies to give law enforcement access to encrypted material.

“If I get elected, France will as of this summer undertake a major initiative aimed at the big internet companies so that they accept a legal framework for requisitions of encrypted services in the context of counter-terrorism efforts,” Macron told a news conference.

He said he wanted to build on this effort alongside other European countries.

British officials demanded last month that tech firms do more to help police gain access to messaging services and track suspects’

in St. Petersburg and two in Moscow in connection with the attack. Bortnikov said all of them hail from former Soviet Central Asian republics and that the police found a large amount of weapons and ammunition at their homes. (AP)

Cyprus reunification talks restart:

Against the backdrop of Turkey’s referendum on expanding presidential powers, talks aimed at reunifying ethnically divided Cyprus restarted Tuesday with rival leaders hoping to claw back diminished trust and lost momentum after a two-month halt.

But the United Nations-mediated negotiations still face difficult challenges, with the island’s Greek Cypriot president accusing the breakaway Turkish Cypriot communications, after an attack in Westminster, London, where the perpetrator had used encrypted communications.

Germany is planning a new law calling for social networks like Facebook and Twitter to remove hate speech quickly or face fines of up to 50 million euros ($54 million).

Google declined to comment. Facebook, Apple and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, a new poll on Tuesday showed far-left wildcard JeanLuc Melenchon nipping at the heels of the frontrunners in France’s presidential race, building on his recent surge as sniping between the top contenders gathered pace.

Tightening

With just 12 days to go until the first round of voting, polls are tightening and possibilities for May’s second, deciding round, tipped for weeks to be between far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron, are opening up.

Conservative candidate Francois Fillon stepped up his attacks against Macron, with whom he is in competition for centre-right voters, calling him a liar. Macron responded, on Sud Radio: “Mr Fillon is a man of little worth.”

Meanwhile Melenchon’s support jumped seven percentage points to 19 percent in a monthly Ifop-Fiducial poll for Paris March and Sud Radio, putting him in third place ahead of Fillon.

He is also targeting Macron’s voters — but this time those to the left or centre-left.

Melenchon and Fillon, on 19 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively,

leader of backpedaling on key issues at Turkey’s prompting following months of solid progress.

The minority Turkish Cypriots, meanwhile, say Greek Cypriots pay lip service to their core demand of equal partnership in the running of an envisioned federation — especially on holding the federal presidency alternately.

It’s still unclear if talks can result in a deal both sides can rally behind.

“I hope this new round of negotiations can finally bring us to the point where we could say that there’s agreement,” President Nicos Anastasiades told reporters after the meeting.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci said the UN could help move the process forward by coming up with bridging still lag Le Pen on 24 percent and Macron on 23 percent. But the two frontrunners are losing steam.

Macron is widely expected to win against Le Pen if both progress to the second round. The poll also showed some 32 percent of voters could abstain in the first round on April 23.

Melenchon’s rise in polls, the latest episode in an election campaign full of surprises, has unnerved financial markets and prompted a warning on Tuesday by the head of business lobby group Medef Pierre Gattaz.

Calling both Melenchon’s and Le Pen’s programmes “an absolute catastrophe” for France, Gattaz warned on Europe 1 radio against a possible Melenchon-Le Pen second round.

“That Le Pen-Melenchon second round shouldn’t take place,” he said.

Though Melenchon is on the polar opposite of the political spectrum from Le Pen, in particular on immigration, they both distrust the European Union, want to renegotiate France’s role in it and hold a referendum on EU membership.

The turbulent presidential campaign has become increasingly bitter in recent weeks as candidates eye the finish line.

Fillon has been under fire since January over allegations his wife was paid hundreds of thousands of euros for minimal work as a parliamentary assistant for several years. The couple are formally being investigated by magistrates.

He again accused the Socialist led-government of helping to spread the allegations on Tuesday.

A daily Opinionway poll showed Macron winning the second round against Le Pen, with Melenchon in fourth place right behind Fillon in the first round.

proposals. He said there’s enough time to reach a deal by July before exploratory drilling for gas off Cyprus’ southern coast begins. Turkish Cypriots object to such drilling because they say it disregards their right to the island’s natural resources. (AP)

‘Hungary should talk with school’:

The Hungarian government should engage in “serious, urgent and good-faith talks” with the Central European University about legal changes seen to be targeting the school founded by billionaire George Soros, a US diplomat said Tuesday.

A bill signed Monday by President Janos Ader sets new conditions for foreign universities in Hungary, some of which seem aimed specifically at CEU. The law demands that foreign universities in Hungary also have a campus in their home countries. While CEU is accredited in Hungary and in New York state, it does not have a US campus.

“We’re very concerned about the legislation,” Hoyt Yee, Deputy Assistant Secretary for US relations with countries in Central Europe, told The Associated Press. “The legislation targets Central European University and threatens the ability of the university, an important American-Hungarian institution, to continue operating in Hungary.”

The law also calls for bilateral agreements between Hungary and the home countries of universities from outside the European Union on how to manage the institutions.

Yee said “the United States does not engage in such agreements about ... how universities are going to be run in foreign countries. This is a matter for the government of Hungary and CEU to work out.”

“We hope that the government of Hungary is going to engage in serious, urgent and good-faith talks with Central European University, as well as other affected institutions,” Yee said during his visit to Budapest, which included meetings with a range of Hungarian government officials as well as CEU authorities, faculty and students. (AP)