France’s parliament recently
passed a controversial bill that would allow the government to install cameras
and recording devices in the homes of potential terrorist suspects. The bill
has support from both France’s socialist and it’s conservative parties which is
making the proposal increasingly more viable in French society in the near
future.
Because this bill allows explicit violations of
privacy, it would probably be disputed among Americans and believers in
democracy across the globe because it is an exercise of absolute power by a
government. In France, the bill is being disputed among both privacy and human
rights advocates for these reasons. On the contrary, many people, especially
the conservative side, believe that the threat of terrorism is more important than
having privacy and are arguing that these laws will help take preventative
measures towards future terrorist attacks. This can be related to 9/11 and the Red Scare which inspired many government officials (including McCarthy) to consider bugging potential terrorists to monitor their activities.
This is just another reawakening of such protruding violations of privacy, like others that have shown up in the past 50 years, that go increasingly against the rights of the individual and the privacy of each and every person. I'm actually surprised at the confirmation of this law because of the modern-day French democratic outlook on government and society that has become well known.
ReplyDelete- Sophia Davison
I wonder how this will affect the United States' relationship with France in the future. It seems as if the countries are taking almost polar views on this topic, and I only hope that it does not cause conflicts in the future.
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