And Manuel Valls amputated the “digital Republic” breast – Rue89

The intervention of Manuel Valls late morning Thursday in the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris to present the outlines of the coming digital law is amazing .

Prime Minister sought to show that he took the measure of the changes made by the digital and therefore declined four axes which reported that magnitude, “freedom to innovate”, “equality rights “,” brotherhood of all accessible digital “,” exemplary of a State which is modernizing. “

followed a series of proposals rather ambitious, highlighting the virtues of innovation, openness and access. We can even meet some very interesting: a right to maintain the connection for people in financial difficulty or even the fact of putting online version 1 of the digital bill so that people can not only view but make remarks and proposals.

We can be grateful to the Prime Minister for bringing a warm and positive vision of digital, without being completely blissful. This was not always the case in the recent political history.

But still … It was strange.

Axelle Lemaire, Manuel Valls, Marisol Touraine, and Clotilde Valter Emmanuel Macron, June 18, 2015 the presentation of the Digital Agenda government (AFP PHOTO / JACQUES DEMARTHON)

Bizarre because if the Prime Minister really wants – as he said, resuming the slogan of Axelle Lemaire – France to become a “Republic digital ‘, how can he pretend that the bill on intelligence – that installs a massive surveillance system – was not as a component of this Republic?

It’s not quibble, but to take into account the fact that all this is related. There is no one side in the digital version of its economic and social, and the other in his safe release. The Prime Minister has referred to “a before and after-Snowden ‘, without however specifying what these two periods were different, but perhaps he should remember that he – he who defends both a law the draconian and digital information as leverage in the economy – the two are linked. And something stupid like trust.

In the past two years, it has been shown repeatedly that Edward Snowden’s revelations about the monitoring system set up by the NSA affected the American-tech economy. Without prejudice to the possible consequences of the French Intelligence Act, at least it shows that things are not separate.

But you could say the same culture. How will a digital French Republic, returning to Brussels the treatment of the issue of copyright, yet central to the economy of culture, and in creating new markets in the digital economy? But the latest statements of Manuel Valls, in May in a conference organized at the Cannes Film Festival, show that the Prime Minister is not prone to in-depth discussion of what could be a copyright to the Internet.

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Behind this, is the question of the uses that arises, and has rarely been addressed by the Prime Minister on Thursday morning. If we really want to establish a digital Republic, it is difficult to put aside the fact that many social uses are processed by digital. Apart from a moment Marisol Touraine, Minister of Health, spoke about the changes in the medical world and the physician-patient relationship, there were only for the economy.

Without doubt this is a reflection of how policies – and this government in particular – see their function, but it gave the image of a Republic which, apart from wondering how to meet the growth and streamline its operation has a very narrow view of how it is conceived.

In short, we do not always see the connection between what the Prime Minister said and what concerns us in our daily digital life. But other than that, people were pleased.